ONE     OF    THE     MAIN    STREETS    OF    PORT-AU-PRINCE 


HAITI. 


ITS  DAWN  OF  PROGRESS  AFTER 
YEARS  IN  A  NIGHT  OF  REVOLUTION 


J.   DRYDEN  £USER 


BOSTON 
RICHARD    G.  BADGER 

THE  GORHAM   PRESS 


COPYEIGHT,   1921,   BY   J.    DEYDEN    KUSEE 

All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  L.  S.  A. 


TO  MY  WIFE 

BROOKE  RUSSELL  KUSER 

THE   SOTJBCE   OF   MY  ORIGINAL  INTEREST  IN   HAITI 
AND  A   NEVER-TIRING  AID  IN   THE  PRESENT  WORK. 


471376 


INTRODUCTION 

HAITI  is  a  country  of  rapidly  changing  con- 
ditions. Like  others,  emerging  from  revolu- 
tion and  disorder  to  peace  and  the  pursuits  of 
peace,  it  finds  its  possibilities  unlimited. 
Furthermore,  under  the  Haitian-American 
treaty,  part  of  the  government  is  being  run 
by  the  Haitians  themselves  in  the  three  depart- 
ments: executive,  legislative  and  judicial;  and 
a  portion  is  controlled  by  the  United  States, 
including  the  military.  In  such  a  two-party 
control,  there  is  naturally  friction  and  this 
causes  frequent  and  changing  disagreements. 

Whereas  in  January,  1920,  the  bandit 
trouble  was  serious,  I  have  just  found,  during 
a  brief  November  trip,  that  this  has  ceased  to 
be  an  active  danger.  In  its  place  there  has 
arisen,  not  a  military  worry,  but  a  political  one. 


Introduction 


Haitian  agitators,  supported  by  ill-advised 
Americans,  have  spread  propaganda  favoring 
the  withdrawal  of  the  United  States  from 
Haiti.  Included  in  this  propaganda  have  been 
the  absurd  accusations  against  the  marines  of 
cruelty  toward  the  natives. 

The  question  of  any  cruelty  or  unnecessary 
killings  has  been  conclusively  disproven  by  the 
findings  of  a  Court  of  Inquiry  sent  to  Haiti, 
and  which  has  recently  published  its  findings. 
As  to  the  withdrawal  of  the  United  States 
from  Haiti — such  a  course  would  be  a  menace 
to  the  world  and  a  sad  neglect  of  duty  by  the 
United  States.  Any  American  acquainted 
with  Haitian  conditions  will  agree  that  the 
marines  would  scarcely  have  boarded  the 
American  ships  before  the  entire  country 
would  be  in  a  state  of  civil  war,  the  lives  and 
property  of  foreigners  endangered,  and  the 
possibility  of  Haiti  paying  off  her  foreign  debt 
would  be  lost. 


Introduction 


As  opposed  to  this  prospect  of  revolution, 
we  have  a  bright  future  for  Haiti,  if  the  United 
States  remains.  The  country  is  naturally  rich 
in  its  products  and  its  soil,  and  labor  is  able  to 
work  for  cheaper  wages  than  elsewhere.  This 
is  a  great  incentive  for  American  business  to 
invest  its  capital,  which  means  that  the  country 
will  rapidly  become  rich  again — as  it  once  was 
in  the  French  days.  But  unlike  conditions  in 
those  days,  the  Haitian  himself  will  share  in 
the  future  development  and  wealth. 

J.  DRYDEN  KUSEE. 

BERXARDSVILLE,  NEW  JERSEY. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


PAGE 


I  SARGASSO  AND  FLYING  FISH       .         .         .11 

II  CACOS         ...:...  20 

III  EVERY  MAN'S  LAND — A  BIT  OF  HISTORY  .  38 

IV  VAUDOUX 52 

V  PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  NORMIL  CHARLES  63 

VI  THE  PRESIDENT 74 

VII  A  MORNING  HUNT 77 

VIII  PINE  NEEDLES 87 

IX  COTTON 93 

X  GOURDES    .                             ....  101 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

ONE  OF  THE  MAIN  STREETS  OF  PORT-AU-PRINCE 

Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

SIFTING  COFFEE  ALONG  A  PRINCIPAL  STREET  .         .13 
DESSALINES   ......  Following       20 

THE  "OPEN"  MARKET  JUST  BELOW  THE  CATHE- 
DRAL .  .  .  .  .  Following  20 

ENTRANCE  TO  THE  "CLOSED"  MARKET   ...       28 

MARINE  PATROL Following       36 

HILLS  NEAR  MIREBALAIS        .         .         .  Following        36 

CIVIL    PRISONERS    OF    PORT-AU-PRINCE    MAKING 

CHAIRS 45 

WOMEN  CARRYING  IN  TO  MARKET  BASKETS  WHICH 

THEY  HAVE  MADE         .         .         .  Following       52 

THE  CATHEDRAL  .....  Following       52 

A  SOURCE  OF  THE  GREATEST  GOOD — THE  ROMAN 
CATHOLIC  SISTERS  AT  ONE  OF  THE  MANY  CON- 
VENTS ON  THE  ISLAND  .  .  60 


List  of  Illustrations 


FACING 
PAGE 


THE  HEAD  NURSE  AT  THE  PUBLIC  HOSPITAL  WITH 

HER  CORPS  OF  HAITIAN  NURSES     ...  61 

MAGISTRAR'S  STAND  OF  WHICH  THERE  is  ONE  IN 

EVERY    TOWN         ....  Following  68 

THE  NEW  PRESIDENT'S  PALACE     .         .  Following  68 
"WHITE  WINGS"  OF  PORT-AU-PRINCE    .         .         .76 

MARKET     WOMEN     LEAVING     TOWN     ON    THEIR 

"BURROS" 77 

TYPICAL  "CAILLE"  NEAR  FURCY    .         .  Following  84 

RAILWAY  TO  LEOGANE    ....  Following  84 

ON  THE  ST.  MARC  ROAD  AFTER  THE  HEAVY  RAINS  92 

HAITIAN  WOMEN   WASHING   THEIR  CLOTHES  IN  A 

DITCH Following  100 

THE  AMERICAN  CLUB    ....  Following  100 


HAITI 


HAITI 


SARGASSO  AND  FLYING  FISH 

FOR  the  first  two  days  out  of  New  York 
harbor  flocks  of  Herring  Gulls  followed 
us  and  occasionally  an  odd  Rohin  and 
a  pair  of  Goldfinches  appeared.     But  after 
Hatteras  was  passed  and  the  sea  was  calmer 
the  gulls  left  us  and  flying  fish  took  their  place. 
Stationed  at  the  bow  I  watched  them  dart  out 
of  the  foam  and  skim,  sometimes  a  few  feet, 
often  many  yards.     At  night  I  took  the  same 

ll 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

post  and  the  phosphorescent  "stars  of  the  sea" 
shone  very  green  against  the  yellow  constella- 
tions above. 

By  the  third  day  ever-increasing  quantities 
of  sargasso  weed  appeared  and  floated  past. 
Torn  from  their  beds  along  tropical  coasts, 
these  bits  of  weed  act  as  the  shelter  for  multi- 
farious forms  of  aquatic  life  which  live  as  long 
as  the  weed  lives  and  die  when  it  finally  decays. 
And  so,  although  no  sign  of  bird  or  other  life 
appeared  above  the  water  surface,  we  were  sur- 
rounded every  moment  by  thousands  of  indi- 
viduals of  dozens  of  species; 

Our  ship  was  the  "Advance"  of  the  Amer- 
ican government-controlled  Panama  R.  R. 
Steamship  Company,  which  operates  the  serv- 
ice between  New  York,  Haiti  and  Panama. 
Two  steamers  run  to  Panama  via  Port-au- 
Prince,  Haiti,  three  are  exclusively  for  Haitian 
ports,  while  the  others  do  not  stop  at  Haiti 
en  route  to  Panama.  Beside  the  Panama  line 

12 


SIFTING  COFFEE   ALONG  A   PRINCIPAL  STREET 


Sargasso  and  Flying  Fish 


there  is  the  Dutch  line  of  boats  which  runs 
from  New  York  to  Haiti  on  regular  sailings, 
but  aside  from  these  two  there  are  no  other 
lines  which  regularly  run  ships  to  Haiti.  And 
so  the  quickest  way  of  travelling  from  Haiti 
to  another  of  the  West  Indies  is  via  Panama. 
Coming  south,  the  first  land  appeared  on 
the  fourth  day,  when  the  lighthouse  of  San 
Salvador,  re-named  Watling's  Island  by  the 
British,  showed  the  northern  point|  of  land 
long  before  the  rest  of  the  flat  surface  was 
visible.  Bird  Rock,  the  Fortune  Islands  and 
Castle  Island  were  passed  during  the  next 
twelve  hours,  and  finally  the  high  mountains 
of  eastern  Cuba  were  twenty  miles  off  our 
starboard.  Before  these  were  out  of  sight, 
the  peak  of  Mole  St.  Nicholas,  Haiti,  arose 
on  the  port  bow.  But  we  were  by  no  means 
yet  at  Port-au-Prince,  our  destination,  for  it 
is  a  seven-hour  sail  from  this  point  to  the  har- 
bor in  the  lower  part  of  the  bay.  The  bay 

13 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

itself  is  over  100  miles  long,  and  in  the  center 
of  it  is  the  Island  of  Gonave,  10  by  40  miles, 
to  which  all  convicts  were  exiled  from  Haiti  in 
the  French  days,  and  many  of  whose  present 
inhabitants  are  descendents  of  these  exiles. 

After  we  had  passed  Gonave,  the  mountain 
ranges  on  both  sides  became  very  close  and  we 
could  see  the  smoke  of  many  fires  high  up  on 
their  slopes.  These  fires,  we  later  found  out, 
were  those  of  the  charcoal  burners,  who  play 
an  important  role  on  the  island.  The  char- 
coal is  obtained  by  placing  the  wood  which 
has  been  gathered  under  a  covering  of  earth 
in  such  a  way  as  to  eliminate  the  undesired 
gases  and  leave  the  charcoal.  After  sufficient 
time,  the  earth  is  removed  and  the  charcoal 
carried  for  miles  into  town  on  the  backs  of 
"burros."  Charcoal  is  used  entirely  in  Haiti 
for  kitchen  fuel.  Of  the  fires  we  saw  in  the 
hills,  all  were  probably  not  those  of  charcoal 
burners,  as  it  is  the  common  thing  for  the 

14 


Sargasso  and  Flying  Fish 


natives  to  burn  off  a  section  of  the  land  which 
they  desire  to  use  and  to  ascribe  the  fire  to 
spontaneous  combustion. 

At  last  the  vari-colored  lights  of  Port-au- 
Prince  peeped  forth  from  among  the  foothills 
on  the  right  and  we  followed  the  channel  in 
by  alignment  with  two  huge  red  range  lights, 
one  on  the  top  of  the  Cathedral  and  the  other 
on  Fort  National.  The  beauty  of  coming  into 
Port-au-Prince  is  by  daylight,  when,  not  un- 
like Serrento,  it  shows  a  background  of  2800 
foot  mountains  rising  behind,  and  with  the  pel- 
lucid green  sea  stretching  out  from  the  town. 
A  Haitian  launch  came  alongside  for  the  cus- 
tom officials  to  board.  Our  passports  were 
taken  to  be  kept  for  overnight  and  recorded, 
and  we  were  then  allowed  to  proceed  to  the 
dock  which  is  at  the  end  of  a  long  pier  jutting 
out  from  the  land. 

As  we  spun  along  to  the  house  where  we 
were  to  visit  we  went  over  streets  smoother 


15 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

and  wider  than  all  but  a  few  in  the  United 
States.  These  streets,  throughout  most  of 
the  town,  were  put  down  under  contract  with 
an  American  firm  in  1914,  before  American 
occupation  of  Haiti,  and  are  of -excellent  qual- 
ity. From  the  business  district  we  came  out 
into  the  Champ  de  Mars,  a  laid-out  park  with 
a  bronze  of  Dessalines,  the  "Founder  of  Hai- 
tian Independence,"  in  the  center;  and  at  the 
end  a  grandstand  from  which  to  watch  the 
sports  or  national  festivities.  Next  to  the 
Champ  de  Mars  is  the  new  palace  of  the 
President  of  Haiti.  It  is  now  at  a  stage  of 
near-completion,  and  one  wing  is  already  oc- 
cupied by  the  President  and  his  family.  This 
building  is  the  fourth  palace  to  be  built  on  the 
same  site,  one  of  the  others  having  been  set 
on  fire  and  destroyed,  and  the  other  two  ruined 
through  explosions.  In  the  latter  cases  the 
President  had  been  unable  to  trust  anyone 
with  the  keeping  of  the  national  supply  of 

16 


Sargasso  and  Flying  Fish 


ammunition  and  was  forced  to  keep  it  in  his 
own  palace,  so  that  in  both  cases  the  Presidents 
were  killed  by  means  of  their  own  powder. 
On  the  lower  side  of  the  palace  are  the  marine 
barracks  and  the  gendarme  caserne,  opposite 
one  another,  and  above  the  Champ  de  Mars 
is  the  marine  brigade  headquarters. 

At  this  point  starts  the  residential  section 
of  the  town  for  both  wealthy  Haitians  and 
Americans  and  other  foreigners.  We  rode 
over  narrow,  quaint  streets,  after  passing  the 
marine  headquarters,  until  we  came  to  Avenue 
Christophe  and  our  house,  of  old  French  style 
and  with  peaked  roof,  which  was  at  one  time 
used  as  the  Presidential  palace.  Most  of  the 
houses  of  Port-au-Prince  are  of  this  old  French 
style  and  show  few  traces  of  the  original 
Spanish.  Around  all  the  better  houses  there 
are  dense  tropical  growths  with  mangoes, 
oranges,  and  guanavena  or  sour-sap  hanging 
over  the  porches.  Many  of  the  yards  have 

17 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

also  one  or  two  royal  palms,  with  their  great 
white  trunks  reaching  over  fifty  feet  and  with 
leaves  clustered  at  the  top.  At  the  very  tip 
of  the  tree's  trunk  is  the  heart,  for  which  many 
trees  are  cut  down,  as  "heart  of  palm"  is  one 
of  the  delicacies  of  the  tropics.  In  the  country 
districts  both  the  royal  and  cocoanut  palm  are 
common.  The  two  are  somewhat  similar  but 
can  be  easily  told  apart  by  the  crooked  growth 
of  the  latter  and  also  its  darker  and  rougher 
trunk. 

The  first  morning  after  our  arrival  was 
cloudy,  which  was  very  unusual,  for  thruout 
the  year  in  Port-au-Prince  the  mornings  are 
almost  invariably  clear.  So  is  the  remainder 
of  the  day  for  the  six  months  during  the  dry 
season,  but  in  the  wet  season  it  regularly  rains 
a  downpour  for  about  two  hours  late  each 
afternoon.  November  is  the  beginning  of  the 
dry  season,  so  for  a  couple  of  weeks  after  our 
arrival  it  would  still  occasionally  rain  for  a  few 

18 


Sargasso  and  Flying  Fish 


moments  a  day.  But  we  missed  having  any 
of  the  truly  tropical  rains  which  during  the 
summer  flood  the  streets  and  sweep  all  before 
them. 

While  the  winter  is  for  Port-au-Prince  and 
southern  Haiti  the  dry  season,  the  conditions 
are  exactly  reversed  in  the  northern  half  of 
the  republic.  There  the  wet  season  com- 
mences in  November,  to  last  for  six  months 
until  the  next  summer  when  all  becomes  dry 
again.  And  so  there  is  never  a  time  in  Haiti 
when  half  of  the  island  is  not  being  well- 
watered  and  the  fruit  and  crops  in  season. 


19 


II 

CACOS 

ALTHOUGH,    in    the    days    of    the 
French,  Cap  Haitien  was  the  capital 
of  Haiti,  to-day  Port-au-Prince  is  the 
capital  as  well  as  the  most  important  town. 
It  is  also  the  most  modern  town,  being  the 
only  one,   for   example,  to   have  the   paved 
streets  which  I  have  referred  to.     In  addition 
it  has  a  good  telephone  and  electric  lighting 
system. 

The  first  morning's  tour  of  the  shops  in 
Port-au-Prince  made  my  former  knowledge 
of  fair  prices  useless.  Goods  which  it  was 
necessary  to  import  from  the  United  States, 
such  as  silks  and  American-made  cloths, 
seemed  exorbitant;  perfumes  and  French 
clothes,  imported  directly  from  Paris  at  a  low 

20 


DESSALINES 


In  the  Champs  de  Mars 


THE     "OPEN        MARKET    JUST    BELOW    THE    CATHEDRAL 


Cacos 

rate  of  duty  sold  at  a  considerably  reduced 
rate  from  the  New  York  price;  but  naturally 
the  greatest  difference  in  cost  was  those  of 
native  goods.  Mahogany  grows  plentifully 
throughout  the  interior  of  Haiti  and  hence  is 
easily  obtained.  Its  price  is  consequently  low 
and  I  purchased  a  solid  mahogany  small  din- 
ner table  for  $6,  which  is  the  customary  price. 
But  compare  the  price  for  such  a  piece  in  New 
York!  And  then  of  course  the  native  fruits 
were  either  free  along  the  roads  or  at  a  nominal 
price  in  the  markets.  Alligator  pears,  bought 
as  a  luxury  in  New  York  for  75  cents  or  a  dol- 
lar apiece,  sell  in  Port-au-Prince  for  5  pears 
for  2  cents. 

In  Port-au-Prince  there  are  two  markets, 
the  "open"  and  the  "closed,"  of  which  the 
latter  is  a  roofed  and  walled  structure  and  the 
former  held  without  cover  on  an  open  plaza, 
directly  beneath  the  wall  around  the  Cathe- 
dral. Here,  together  with  alligator  pears,  are 

21 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

sold  bananas,  limes,  grapefruit,  fish,  meats, 
dry  goods  and  odds  and  ends  which  are  found 
in  a  department  store.  Here  also  ffrapadou>" 
— a  native  candy  made  from  brown  sugar  and 
cocoanut — is  for  sale.  This  candy  is  also 
peddled  along  the  streets  and  trays  full  of  it 
are  carried  by  the  natives  on  their  heads,  whilst 
they  continually  call  attention  to  their  ware 
by  calling  it  out  at  frequent  intervals.  What- 
ever a  Haitian  has  to  carry,  be  it  an  armchair, 
a  piece  of  paper  or  a  trayful  of  fine  glassware, 
he  carries  it  upon  his  head.  They  have  in  this 
way  developed  the  ability  to  stand  great  weight 
and  certainly  one  beneficial  result  is  the  invari- 
ably erect  carriage  of  a  Haitian  caused 
through  the  necessity  of  always  maintaining 
balance  when  he  carries  his  goods. 

Up  to  within  a  few  weeks  of  our  arrival  the 
native  shops  used  to  remain  open  in  the  eve- 
ning. When  we  arrived,  however,  they  closed 
each  night  at  dark.  This  was  because  of  a 

22 


Cacos 

scare  which  they  had  recently  received  when 
a  small  band  of  revolutionary  bandits,  known 
throughout  Haiti  as  "cacos,"  attempted  to 
make  a  raid  upon  the  town.  In  the  old  days 
of  unstable  government  the  natives  had  become 
accustomed  to  the  existing  government  falling 
every  time  the  cacos  arrived,  and  they  were 
not  easily  led  to  realize  last  September  that  it 
is  no  longer  possible  now  that  the  marines  are 
guarding  the  town.  And  hence  for  weeks 
after  the  attack  the  shopkeepers  regularly 
shut  themselves  up  in  their  houses  at  dark 
each  night. 

For  sometime  after  the  Americans  occupied 
Haiti  in  1915  there  were  no  organized  upris- 
ings, but  within  a  year  various  causes  have  led 
the  wild  tribes  of  the  interior  to  join  together 
into  various  bands  and  attempt  organized 
raids. 

The  fighting  of  these  cacos  is  extremely 
difficult  for  three  principal  reasons;  first,  the 

23 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

secret  sympathy  of  some  reputable  and  promi- 
nent Haitians  and  the  consequent  impossibil- 
ity of  obtaining  any  information  from  them; 
second,  the  nature  of  the  country  which  per- 
mits the  cacos  to  retreat  into  the  mountainous 
regions  which  are  wild  and  contain  many  caves 
and  trails  unknown  to  the  whites;  and  third, 
the  manner  in  which  the  bandits  fight.  Like 
the  Indians  they  conduct  a  warfare  of  night 
raids  and  of  sniping,  so  that  only  a  sort  of 
guerrilla  war  .can  be  conducted  against  them. 
And  then  too,  as  the  cacos  are  not  in  uniform, 
it  is  impossible  to  know  who  is  or  who  is  not 
a  caco,  except  when  they  are  actually  banded 
together  or  carrying  their  arms. 

But  results  are  being  slowly  accomplished. 
The  towns  are  protected  and  guarded  so  that 
when  an  attack  is  made  it  can  be  repulsed  and 
patrols  sent  out  to  round  up  as  many  of  the 
invaders  as  possible.  In  the  interior  districts 
where  the  bandits  congregate  and  make  their 

24 


Cacos 

rendezvous,  expeditions  are  being  continually 
sent  out  and  the  country  honeycombed  be- 
tween the  different  hill  posts.  Near  L'Archa- 
hai  there  is  a  cave  which,  dating  from  the  earli- 
est records  of  Haitian  history,  has  been  cred- 
ited as  being  a  bandit  retreat.  Here  the  cacos 
are  still  supposed  to  meet  and  go  into  hiding, 
but  as  the  cave  is  a  huge  opening  on  the  side  of 
a  mountain,  and  inaccessible  unless  a  rope  lad- 
der be  let  down  from  someone  already  there,  it 
is  quite  inaccessible  and  impossible  to  attack. 

In  Haiti  there  are  two  different  armies,  so 
to  speak.  The  gendarmerie  or  national  army 
of  Haiti  consists  of  the  enlisted  men  who  are 
Haitians  and  of  officers  in  charge  of  them  who 
are  American  marines  loaned  to  the  Haitian 
Government,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions 
of  the  treaty,  to  organize  and  train  the  Haitian 
army  so  as  to  make  it  an  efficient  fighting 
police  force  which  is  able  to  support,  and  pre- 
serve against  attack,  the  existing  government. 

25 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

The  gendarmerie  have  abundantly  proven, 
in  many  recent  cases  when  they  have  been  led 
by  American  officers,  that  they  are  thoroughly 
trustworthy  and  loyal  fighters.  Nor  is  there 
any  doubt  of  their  courage,  for  they  are  as 
brave  as  any  body  of  troops  in  the  world.  The 
gendarmerie  are  used  for  guarding  a  town 
after  it  has  been  once  freed  from  active  caco- 
ism,  and  everywhere  in  Haiti  one  sees  their 
white  and  red  stone  headquarters.  The  gen- 
darmerie are  also  used,  together  with  the 
marines,  to  go  out  into  the  hills  on  patrols  for 
routing  the  cacos  and  clearing  up  the  country. 

The  second  army  is  the  occupation  force  of 
American  marines  stationed  in  Haiti  since  the 
intervention  of  1915  to  preserve  order  and  pro- 
tect the  nationals  and  property  of  Americans 
and  other  foreigners  in  the  country.  For 
those  marines  who  are  in  search  of  real  adven- 
ture and  fighting,  even  those  who  were  in  the 
world  war  might  well  look  with  envy  upon 

26 


Cacos 

the  men  who  are  doing  patrol  duty  among  the 
Haitian  hills.  Alone  or  in  company  with  the 
gendarmes,  they  have  had  encounters  so  filled 
with  adventure  that  I  will  tell  of  one  which 
occurred  shortly  before  our  arrival. 

Charlemagne  Massena  Peralte,  a  man  who 
came  from  the  Hinche  district,  and  of  natural 
ability  as  a  leader,  was  of  anti-white  sympa- 
thies and  early  after  the  American  occupation 
associated  himself  with  a  family  named  Zamor 
in  the  northeast  country  around  Hinche. 
One  of  the  Zamor  brothers,  Oreste  Zamor,  was 
formerly  a  president  of  the  republic  and  an- 
other was  the  great  leader  of  the  north  and  is 
now  in  the  Port-au-Prince  prison  as  a  con- 
spirator. Charlemagne  rose  in  the  caco  ranks 
to  the  position  of  chief  and  was  so  successful 
in  his  first  encounters  and  attempts  as  to  make 
the  name  of  Charlemagne  known  everywhere 
as  the  supreme  caco.  Charlemagne  was  the 
clever  and  guiding  hand  of  all  the  revolutipn- 

27 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

ary  attacks  which  occurred  about  this  time, 
so  it  became  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
capture  him.  Many  attempts  to  do  this  were 
made  by  the  marines  and  the  gendarmes,  but 
on  each  occasion  his  preparation  for  scouts  and 
ways  of  escape  made  it  possible  for  him  to 
evade  them. 

In  October,  the  location  of  Charlemagne 
having  been  reported,  two  marines,  officers  in 
the  gendarmerie,  volunteered  to  capture  Char- 
lemagne. They  made  very  careful  prepara- 
tions to  set  out  with  twenty  gendares  and  dis- 
guised themselves  by  blackened  skin  and  native 
clothes.  Both  of  the  officers  spoke  Creole  well, 
but  naturally  with  some  foreign  accent  and  so 
it  was  necessary  for  them  to  speak  as  little  as 
was  possible.  When  near  the  place  where 
Charlemagne  was  reported  to  be  spending  the 
day,  they  met  the  first  caco  outposts  who 
stopped  and  questioned  them.  Claiming  they 

28 


ENTRANCE    TO    THE     "CLOSED"     MARKET 


Cacos 

had  an  important  message  to  deliver  to  Charle- 
magne, giving  the  password  and  claiming  such 
extreme  fatigue  for  the  two  officers  that  these 
officers  could  barely  answer  the  questions  put 
to  them,  the  party  succeeded  in  being  passed. 
A  second  and  a  third  guard  of  Charle- 
magne's were  in  the  same  way  fooled  and  at 
last  the  gendarmes  came  to  a  clearing.  In 
the  center  of  the  clearing  were  gathered  to- 
gether a  group  of  bandits  around  a  fire,  and 
at  the  side  of  the  fire  sat  a  woman.  Behind 
her  there  was  a  sort  of  rude  throne  and  here 
sat  the  great  Charlemagne.  Scarcely  had  the 
gendarmes  seen  the  crowd  collected  here  when 
they  were  recognized  and  a  signal  given.  The 
woman  lept  to  the  fire  and  succeeded  in  brush- 
ing and  stamping  it  out.  In  the  darkness 
which  followed,  she  and  her  followers  escaped. 
But  hardly  had  the  signal  of  detection  been 
given  when  Charlemagne  was  the  aim  for  the 

29 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

gendarme  rifles,  and  when  a  new  fire  was 
lighted  he  was  found  to  be  dead  together  with 
a  few  of  the  crowd  with  him. 

The  belief  in  Haiti  was  a  common  one  that 
Charlemagne  was  a  supernatural  being  who 
was  immune  from  rifle  bullets  or  the  weapons 
of  his  adversaries.  In  fact,  he  himself  boasted 
that  this  was  true.  And  so,  upon  his  death, 
pictures  of  him  were  taken  and  these  the 
marines  spread  broadcast  throughout  the  re- 
public to  prove  to  all  Haitians  that  the  invul- 
nerable Charlemagne  was  at  last  killed. 

It  is  this  kind  of  fighting  which  the  marines 
and  gendarmes  have  to  continually  do  in  com- 
batting the  caco  trouble.  After  the  death  of 
Charlemagne,  Benoit  Batraville,  who  was 
formerly  a  sullen  police  chief  in  the  mountain 
town  of  Mirebalais,  became  the  caco  leader. 
He  had  joined  the  caco  ranks  only  shortly  be- 
fore Charlemagne's  death,  and  although  not 
nearly  so  clever  a  brigand  as  the  supreme  caco 

so 


Cacos 

was  perhaps  the  most  intelligent  and  the  best 
leader  when  Charlemagne  died.  Up  to  the  time 
of  my  departure  in  February,  all  attempts  to 
capture  Benoit  had  failed  but  I  have  since 
heard  of  his  killing.  It  was  during  a  skirmish 
with  the  marines  in  which  the  latter  penetrated 
to  the  leader's  rendezvous  and  although  every 
other  person  in  the  camp  escaped,  the  officer 
leading  the  marines  had  the  good  fortune  to 
kill  Benoit. 

And  so  another  man  of  fair  intelligence  has 
been  eliminated  from  the  bandit  forces.  This 
has  practically  destroyed  the  caco  power  as 
an  offensive  force,  for  it  is  the  few  men 
whom  the  cacos  have  among  them  of  brains 
which  make  them  at  all  a  dangerous  factor. 
The  bandits  are  with  a  few  exceptions  utterly 
ignorant  and  unable  to  lead  an  attack  unless 
inspired  and  led  by  someone  who  has  lived  in 
the  towns  and  developed  some  intelligence. 
To  illustrate  the  almost  unbelievable  state  of 

31 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

mentality  possessed  by  the  cacos,  I  will  tell 
of  the  prisoners  taken  in  one  'raid.  After 
the  raid  the  prisoners  were  taken  back  to  the 
town  to  be  temporarily  held  there  awaiting 
trial.  When  the  men  reached  the  house,  they 
were  unable  to  walk  up  the  stairs,  as  stairs 
were  new  to  them.  They  had  never  seen  a 
house  of  two  stories  before  and  did  not  know 
what  to  make  of  the  second  floor. 

I  have  mentioned  a  caco  attempt  to  raid 
Port-au-Prince  just  before  our  arrival,  in 
which  some  of  the  bandits  reached  town.  By 
January,  over  a  month  after  we  arrived,  the 
town  had  again  assumed  its  normal  state,  and 
fear  of  another  attack  was  practically  elimi- 
nated from  the  minds  of  the  natives.  This  was 
the  condition  when,  on  the  morning  of  January 
15th,  the  telephone  rang  at  4  a.m.  and  we 
heard  that  "3,000  cacos  are  marching  into  town 
by  the  Hasco  Road."  The  cacos,  advancing 
into  town  in  column  and  with  flags  and  conch- 

32 


Cacos 

horns  blowing,  divided,  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
from  town,  one  column  going  along  the  water 
front  and  reaching  town  by  way  of  the  slaugh- 
ter house,  the  other  two  columns  turning  far- 
ther inland  and  advancing  around  Belleair 
hill,  by  the  radio  station. 

When  the  troops  had  nearly  reached  town 
our  marines  opened  fire  with  Brownings  and 
machine  guns,  but  the  natives  broke  ranks  and 
fired  from  around  corners,  and  rushing  into  the 
houses,  fired  upon  the  marines  from  the  win- 
dows. Gradually  they  were  driven  back,  but 
en  route  they  had  fired  some  of  the  native 
"cailles"  in  the  poor  section  of  the  town  and 
the  light  from  this  lit  up  the  entire  surround- 
ing country. 

By  daybreak  many  cacos  were  lying  dead 
along  the  entrance  to  the  city,  the  attack  had 
been  completely  repulsed  and  the  cacos  driven 
far  from  town.  Over  150  were  captured  or 
killed  and  but  three  of  the  marines  wounded, 

33 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

only  one  fatally.  A  large  number  of  caco  had 
been  pressed  so  hard  on  their  flanks  and  front 
that  they  were  forced  to  retreat  into  a  closed 
valley  back  of  Belleair  and  were  there  almost 
completely  wiped  out  by  a  volley  of  machine 
guns. 

All  during  the  day  patrols  searched  the 
plains  and  outlying  country.  In  this  way  they 
captured  singly  or  in  groups  many  of  the 
brigands  who  were  retreating  to  the  hills. 
One  automobile  full  of  townsmen,  arriving 
from  Gonaives,  told  of  meeting  the  caco  band, 
or  at  least  part  of  it  and  only  escaping  by  a 
miracle.  The  dents  and  holes  made  by  the 
bullets  while  the  car  ran  the  gauntlet  between 
the  crowd,  could  be  seen  covering  the  body  of 
the  car  when  it  came  into  town. 

In  the  afternoon  a  house-to-house  search 
was  made  in  the  district  where  the  righting 
occurred  and,  asleep  in  his  own  house,  the 
police  found  and  recognized  Solomen  Janvier. 

34 


Cacos 

Janvier  is  a  man  who  formerly  lived  in  Port- 
au-Prince  in  the  house  where  he  was  found. 
But  he  had  always  been  a  revolutionist  and  for 
many  months  previous  to  the  raid  had  been 
out  in  the  hills  with  the  cacos. 

Janvier  boasted,  after  he  had  been  taken 
to  prison,  that  every  attack  which  had  been 
made  upon  Port-Au-Prince  during  recent 
years  had  been  led  by  him;  and  that  in  the 
present  raid  there  had  been  three  leaders  lead- 
ing the  different  sections  of  the  caco  force,  but 
that  the  other  two  were  cowards  and  had  fled 
before  they  reached  town,  he  alone  leading  the 
actual  attack. 

The  number  of  cacos  who  reached  the  town 
is  uncertain.  First  reports  gave  the  number 
as  3,000,  which  was  later  reduced  to  1,500,  as 
claimed  by  the  men  at  Hasco,  the  sugar  plant 
of  the  American-Haitian  Sugar  Company,  by 
which  the  cacos  passed  on  their  way  into  town. 
But,  although  there  were  many  camp  followers 

35 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

who  never  entered  and  engaged  in  the  fighting, 
it  is  probable  that  the  number  of  actual  fight- 
ers was  about  300.  On  the  morning  after  the 
raid,  our  cook  told  me  that  she  had  heard  in 
the  market  places  that  morning  that  there  were 
2,000,000  cacos  who  had  entered  the  town  and 
that  1,000,000  had  been  killed.  This,  I  think, 
was  the  wildest  rumor  I  heard. 

On  the  second  day  someone  spread  the 
rumor  that  2,000  more  cacos  were  coming  into 
Port-au-Prince,  and  as  it  took  some  time  to 
prove  the  report  false,  there  was  great  ex- 
citement throughout  the  town.  I  went  down 
beyond  the  Champ  de  Mars,  and,  rushing  in 
every  direction,  were  the  natives,  each  return- 
ing to  his  respective  home.  As  soon  as  they 
reached  there,  the  windows  and  doors  were 
boarded  and  within  a  very  short  time  every 
house  was  closed  and  not  a  person  was  to  be 
seen  upon  the  streets.  And  so  another  day 
was  lost  to  business,  for  all  of  the  shops  had 

S3 


MARINE     PATROL 


HILLS    XEAR    MIREBALAIS 


Cacos 

been  closed  since  the  raid  because  of  the  great 
fear  that  the  cacos  were  going  to  make  a  second 
attack. 

In  October,  when  the  raid  was  made  before 
our  arrival,  the  cacos  escaped  with  a  loss  of 
only  a  few  men,  but  in  January  so  many  of 
their  number  were  killed  or  captured  in  town 
and  out  in  the  plains  during  their  retreat  that 
it  will  certainly  make  them  wary  of  again  in- 
vading the  town  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

Benoit,  himself,  was  in  part  of  the  fighting 
during  the  January  raid,  but  unfortunately 
was  among  the  bandits  who  escaped  and  was 
soon  back  with  his  followers  in  the  Mirebalais 
hills,  where  he  was  eventually  captured  as  I 
have  related. 


Ill 


EVERY   MAN  S  LAND A  BIT  OF   HISTORY 

THE  Republic  of  Haiti  consists  of  the 
western  part  of  the  island  of  Santo 
Domingo,  while  the  eastern  end  consti- 
tutes the  country  of  Santo  Domingo.  The 
latter,  while  it  has  three  times  the  territory, 
claims  but  one-third  the  population  of  Haiti, 
which  is  to-day  estimated  at  2,500,000.  Col- 
umbus' estimate  of  the  combined  population 
of  what  is  now  Haiti  and  Santo  Domingo  was 
as  high  as  2,000,000,  but  during  the  four  inter- 
vening centuries  the  change  in  race  has  been 
complete.  Scarcely  a  strain  of  aboriginal 
blood  is  left;  and  no  ancestor  of  the  present 
natives  then  even  knew  of  the  "new  world/' 
Ownership  of  Haiti  has  changed  hands  four 
times  in  this  period,  and  revolution,  crime  and 

38 


Every  Mans  Land — A  Bit  of  History 

barbarism  have  left  indelible  marks   on  the 
pages  of  her  history. 

The  men  left  in  Haiti  by  Columbus  and 
those  who  followed  the  pioneers  from  Spain 
have  scant  justification  for  their  brutal  treat-  ~ 
ment  of  the  Indians  whom  they  met,  and 
among  the  disgraces  committed  by  white  men 
in  their  dealings  with  the  aborigines  in  Amer- 
ica, the  acts  of  the  Spaniards  in  Haiti  and 
Santo  Domingo  were  among  the  most  deplor- 
able. 

Before  long,  the  Spaniards,  having  wiped 
out  the  native  Indians,  were  obliged  to  search 
for  labor  to  till  their  soil  and  to  search  for  gold. 
All  of  the  metals  possessed  by  the  local  red- 
skins had  been  stolen  by  the  first-comers. 
Turning  naturally  to  African  slaves  to  solve 
the  problem  of  labor,  the  Spaniards  imported 
the  blacks  in  ever-increasing  numbers. 

The  Spaniards  had  not  long  been  settled  in 
this  way  before  they  were  themselves  forced 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

to  contest  rule  over  the  island,  for  French  ad- 
venturers had  come  into  the  country  and  by 
1697  the  latter  were  so  successful  that  most 
of  that  portion  of  land  now  known  as  Haiti 
was  recognized  by  the  Spanish  to  be  under 
French  control. 

The  French  continued  the  practice,  com- 
menced by  the  Spaniards,  of  introducing  negro 
slaves  and  thousands  were  each  year  added  to 
the  number  already  settled.  Rapidly  Haiti 
became  France's  richest  colony  and  the  stories 
of  the  magnificent  estates  and  the  luxury  in 
which  wealthy  planters  and  French  noblemen 
lived  are  pitiful  in  contrast  with  what  was  so 
soon  to  follow.  Pauline  Bonaparte's  estate 
near  "Mon  Repos"  on  the  outskirts  of  Port- 
au-Prince  lies  in  ruins  and  there  remains  little 
trace  of  luxury  about  the  huge  pool  where  once 
she  held  court  and  receptions  at  which  much 
of  the  nobility  of  France  was  present.  It  is 
said  that  the  wealthy  Parisians  used  to  send 

40 


Every  Man's  Land — A  Bit  of  History 

their  clothes  to  be  washed  in  the  waters  of  the 
streams  of  Port-au-Prince  regularly  every  six 
months  because  of  the  extraordinary  bluing 
quality  which  was  credited  to  the  water. 

While  Haiti  was  thus  becoming  a  treasure 
island  for  the  French,  this  wealth  was  at  the 
expense  of  the  black  slaves,  whom  the  French 
forced  into  overwork  by  extreme  punishments. 
And  thus,  while  the  nobility  in  France  were 
holding  down  their  peasants  to  vaunt  their 
vanity  in  the  effete  displays  of  the  court  of 
Louis  XV,  and  thus  foster  the  seeds  of  discon- 
tent which  bore  such  frightful  fruit  in  the  days 
of  the  Guillotine,  the  French  planters  were  do- 
ing the  self-same  thing  to  a  worse  extent  in 
their  treatment  of  the  blacks  in  Haiti.  Out 
of  their  cruel  servitude  was  to  come  the  suc- 
cession of  revolutions  and  the  hatred  of  black 
and  white  which  to  this  day  has  kept  Haiti  in 
the  rearguard  of  civilization. 

The  era  of  the  French  revolution  gave  an 

41 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

opening  for  the  first  negro  rebellion,  and  led 
by  the  example  of  the  white  planters  who  re- 
belled against  their  own  government,  the  mu- 
lattoes  organized  to  some  extent  and  a  man 
named  Oge  attempted  to  obtain  justice  in  both 
Paris  and  from  the  local  authorities.  Failing, 
he  was  sought  as  a  rebel  and  after  armed  re- 
sistance by  himself  and  his  followers  he  was 
captured  and  executed. 

Critical  conditions  soon  led  the  French  Con- 
stituent Assembly  to  send  three  Commission- 
ers from  France  to  restore  order  and  also 
issued  a  decree  that  "every  man  of  color,  born 
of  free  parents  should  enjoy  equal  political 
rights  with  the  whites."  However,  the  feeling 
in  Haiti  was  so  strong  against  this  act  that 
pressure  was  brought  to  bear  upon  Governor 
Blanchelande  which  prevented  his  executing 
the  decree  and  pitched  battles  took  place  be- 
tween the  whites  and  the  blacks. 

The  French  Government,  largely  through; 

42 


Every  Mans  Land — A  Bit  of  History 

incapable  Commissioners  whom  they  had  sent, 
was  losing  her  grip  on  the  control  of  Haitian 
affairs,  and  at  the  same  time  there  arose  two 
contending  forces  to  control  affairs  there.  In 
the  north  the  negros  had  succeeded  in  becom- 
ing the  stronger  factor  and  a  slave,  named 
Toussaint  L' Overture,  though  at  first  faithful 
to  his  master,  soon  saw  the  inevitable  trend  of 
affairs  and  joined  the  rebels.  He  very  quick- 
ly proved  his  ability  for  leadership  and  was 
soon  chosen  their  chief  .J 

In  the  meanwhile  the  English  had,  with  a 
"iiculously  small  force,  taken  St.  Marc  and 
afterwards  Port-au-Prince.  I  After  Toussaint 
had  firmly  established  himself  in  the  north,  he 
marched  southward  to  essay  the  attacking  of 
the  English.  Time  after  time  he  attempted  to 
force  them  to  surrender,  but  each  effort  was 
repulsed.  Soon,  however,  the  English  real- 
ized the  impossibility  of  conquering  Haiti,  and 
decided  to  evacuate.  They  treated  with  Tous- 

43 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

saint  and  left  St.  Marc  and  Port-au-Prince  to 
him  and  his  party  of  the  north. 

At  this  point  Toussaint  showed  his  discern- 
ing insight  into  the  entire  black  versus  white 
situation  at  that  time  by  allowing  all  foreigners 
who  sided  with  him  to  remain  undisturbed  in 
"the  newly- acquired  territory.  But  this  action 
did  not  meet  with  favor  from  all,  and,  chiefly 
through  the  influence  of  Hedouville,  many 
whites  were  murdered  contrary  to  the  order  of 
Toussaint. 

Rigoud,  in  control  of  the  south,  now  opposed 
Toussaint  but  was  forced  to  make  peace  with 
him  when  the  French  sent  a  commission  and 
supported  Toussaint's  claim  to  rule.  Among 
the  generals  of  Toussaint  was  Dessalines  who 
commanded  his  troops  in  the  north  while  Tous- 
saint was  himself  in  the  vicinity  of  Port-au- 
Prince.  Dessalines,  like  Hedouville,  was 
radically  opposed  to  the  equality  policy  of 
Toussaint  and  while  the  latter  was  away  he 

44 


CIVIL    PRISONERS    AT    PORT-AU-PRINCE     MAKING    CHAIRS 


Every  Mans  Land — A  Bit  of  History 

was  intolerant  of  the  mulattos  and  murdered 
thousands  of  them. 

Toussaint,  in  spite  of  these  disagreements 
and  violations  of  his  orders,  was  nevertheless 
supreme  in  Haiti.  He  now  aspired  to  the 
throne  of  Santo  Domingo  as  well.  Therefore, 
all  preparations  completed,  he  set  out  ppon  his 
new  march  of  conquest  and,  not  meeting  a 
single  reverse,  Toussaint,  upon  his  return, 
claimed  possession  of  the  entire  island. 

But  here  Toussaint  made  his  fatal  step. 
Instead  of  declaring  the  independence  of 
Haiti  he  ruled  it  as  a  French  colony  with  him- 
self as  the  self-appointed  governor  and  with 
his  creed  based  upon  equality  for  white,  black 
and  mulatto.  The  result  of  this  policy  was 
that  when  France  was  again  at  peace,  Bona- 
parte was  able  to  make  an  attempt  to  again 
bring  Haiti  back  to  the  condition  of  slavery. 
By  false  trickery  the  French  General  Leclerc 
captured  Toussaint  and  exiled  him  to  the  Alps, 

45 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

where  he  soon  died.  Toussaint,  the  conqueror, 
thus  lost  his  chance  of  becoming  Toussaint,  the 
founder  of  the  republic.  I 

War  was  now  declared  between  France  and 
England  and  opportunity  again  arose  for  the 
French  to  be  driven  from  Haiti.  Dessalines 
with  many  of  Toussaint' s  former  generals  ac- 
complished this  task  and  declared  the  country 
independent.  Dessalines  was  made  Governor- 
General  and  declared  the  "Founder  of  Haitian 
Independence.'^jHe  is  known  everywhere 
under  this  title  to-day,  and  is  far  more  revered 
than  Toussaint  as  the  great  national  hero. 
Inspired  by  the  crowning  of  Bonaparte  in 
1804,  Dessalines  declared  himself  the  first  em- 
peror of  Haiti  and  from  that  time  on  until  his 
death  he  continued  to  rule  a  one-man  power  of 
terrorism  and  brutality.  \ 

Upon  the  death  of  Dessalines,  rival  claims 
were  made  by  the  various  sectional  chiefs  for 
the  crown  of  the  new  Haitian  Empire.  Out 


Every  Man's  Land — A  Bit  of  History 

of  these  leaders  Christophe  arose  in  the  north 
as  the  strongest  contender  and  after  pro- 
claiming himself  King  Henry  I  of  Haiti,  he 
succeeded  in  practically  eliminating  all  other 
leaders  except  Petion  who  was  very  powerful 
in  the  south.  But  these  two  rivals  were  forced 
to  unite  their  forces  and  strength  in  common 
cause  against  the  French  who  made  a  new  but 
unfruitful  effort  to  regain  possession  of  the 
island. 

Petion  and  Christophe  were  opposite  types. 
Petion  was  rather  easy-going  and  it  was  this 
which  held  his  followers  to  him  rather  than  any 
show  of  force.  But  Christophe,  second  only 
to  Dessalines  as  a  national  hero,  was  even  more 
despotic  than  that  emperor  in  the  treatment 
of  his  own  people. 

It  was  Christophe  who  built  the  great  citadel 
at  Cap  Haitien  and  who,  taking  his  architect 
up  to  show  him  the  view  from  the  cliff,  pitched 
him  into  eternity  lest  he  might  disclose  his 

47 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

> ' 

knowledge  of  the  secret  passages  which  he  had 
designed.  In  building  the  Citadel,  the  ascent 
was  so  steep  as  to  make  almost  beyond  the  lim- 
its of  human  endurance  the  carrying  up  of 
heavy  building  materials.  It  is  said  that  the 
5000  men  assigned  to  do  this  work  refused, 
and,  upon  hearing  of  this,  Christophe  had  the 
men  lined  up  and  every  other  man  killed.  He 
then  commanded  the  remaining  2500  to  com- 
plete the  task  or  they  should  receive  the  same 
fate  as  the  others. 

But  this  iron  rule  of  Christophe  proved  to 
be  a  boomerang  for  him  and  a  man  named 
Boyer,  who  was  by  this  time  the  leader  in  the 
south,  marched  northward  and  declared  Haiti 
a  republic  and  himself  its  first  president.  The 
north  was  tired  of  Christophe  and  willingly 
joined  in  with  the  cause  of  Boyer.  Under 
Boyer,  Santo  Domingo  declared  herself  inde- 
pendent and  in  allegiance  to  President  Boyer 

48 


Every  Man's  Land — A  Bit  of  History 

of  Haiti,  who  thus  became  chief  of  the  entire 
island. 

The  next  event  was  the  demand  by  France 
for  indemnity  and  Boyer  acceded  to  this  de- 
mand on  condition  that  France  sign  a  treaty 
acknowledging  the  independence  of  Haiti. 
This  was  agreed  to  and  two  treaties  were 
signed,  but  the  indemnity  always  remained 
practically  unpaid,  for  revolution  after  revolu- 
tion made  a  collection  of  the  indemnity  through 
a  blockade  impossible. 

After  the  death  of  Boyer,  strong  rule  was 
lacking  for  a  long  time  and  the  government 
was  ever -changing,  being  overthrown  by  each 
succeeding  revolution.  This  was  largely  due 
to  the  fact  that  there  was  no  ruler  who  was  ac- 
ceptable to  both  the  blacks  and  the  mulattoes, 
who  were  now  the  two  constantly  opposed 
factors.  It  is  said  that  the  Haitian  flag  of 
red  and  blue  was  formed  from  the  French  by 

49 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

eliminating  the  white  even  as  the  white  race 
had  been  eliminated  from  the  island,  and  leav- 
ing only  the  blue  for  the  blacks  and  the  red 
for  the  mullatoes.  Nevertheless  it  is  certain 
that  these  two  remaining  colors  could  not  live 
in  harmony  together.  No  rule  was  long  stable 
and  frequent  and  serious  uprisings  which  re- 
sulted in  interference  with  the  foreigners  in 
Haiti  caused  the  diplomatic  corps  many  a 
critical  problem.  Law  and  order  were  un- 
known and  few  were  the  presidents  of  that 
period  who  died  a  natural  death. 

Finally,  in  1915,  the  climax  came.  Presi- 
dent Sam  was  driven  from  his  palace  by 
the  mob,  and  chased  by  them  through  the 
streets.  Finally  they  followed  him  when  he 
sought  refuge  in  the  French  territory  of  the 
legation  and  he  was  there  massacred  and  cut  to 
shreds  before  the  eyes  of  the  wife  and  children 
of  the  French  minister.  Intervention  by  the 
French  was  naturally  imminent,  but  in  order  to 

50 


Every  Mans  Land — A  Bit  of  History 

preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
America  took  the  lead  and  forced  the  existing 
government  of  Haiti  to  accept  a  treaty  which 
temporarily  allows  America  a  sufficiently  free 
hand  in  Haiti  to  maintain  law  and  order  and  to 
help  the  Haitians  build  up  a  civilized  and 
stable  government. 

And  so  it  is  that  we  are  to-day  visiting  Haiti 
and  that  it  is  now  possible  to  travel  in  a  country 
which  was  previously  in  the  throes  of  continual 
unrest.  Whereas  before  the  Occupation, 
practically  no  administration  was  able  to  com- 
plete its  term  of  office,  foreign  business  was 
unable  to  hazard  investments  and  personal 
safety  was  uncertain;  protection  is  now  af- 
forded to  the  foreigner  who  comes  to  Haiti, 
and  equality  of  treatment  in  public  for  all 
colors  is  the  rule. 


51 


IV 

VAUDOUX 

HAITI  is  one  of  the  few  countries 
where  State  and  Church  still  remain 
united,  and  to-day  the  Catholic  clergy 
are  under  government  pay.  Roman  Catholi- 
cism first  became  the  Haitian  religion  when,  in 
1836,  the  Pope  was  declared  its  head  and  given 
the  authority  to  appoint  its  bishops.  The 
priests  are  almost  uniformly  upright  men  who 
are  working  along  beneficial  lines  among  the 
natives  and  are  one  of  the  leading  forces  for 
good  in  the  country. 

The  masses  in  Haiti,  however,  do  not  believe 
in  straight  Catholicism  but  in  Vaudouxism. 
This  creed  is  of  African  origin  and  was  intro- 
duced into  Haiti  when  the  black  slaves  were 
brought  over  by  the  Spanish  and  French.  To 

52 


WOMEN  CARRYING  IN  TO  MARKET  BASKETS  WHICH  THEY 
HAVE  MADE.  LIKE  EVERYTHING  ELSE  THEY  ARE  CARRIED 
ON  THEIR  HEADS 


THE    CATHEDRAL 


Vaudoux 


these  original  beliefs  they  have  slowly  accumu- 
lated a  few  Indian  superstitions  and  very 
many  of  the  ceremonies  and  attributes  of 
Christianity,  so  that  Vaudouxism  as  it  exists 
in  Haiti  to-day  is  a  unique  religion. 

Vaudoux  is  the  deity  of  the  Vaudouxists  and 
is  represented  as  a  venomless  serpent.  The 
human  leader  of  the  creed  is  a  high  priest  se- 
lected by  the  followers  of  Vaudoux  from 
among  themselves  and  is  known  as  Papaloi, 
and  he  in  turn  selects  a  high  priestess  who  is 
called  Mamanloi  (corruptions  of  the  words 
Papa  Roi  and  Maman  Hoi).  In  these  two 
personages  is  supposed  to  be  the  divine  spark. 
But,  mixed  with  this  pure  Vaudouxism,  there 
is  much  Christian  ceremony,  such  as  the  in- 
clusion of  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and 
the  observance  of  Easter  Day. 

Like  all  primitive  religious  cults,  the  Vau- 
douxists include  in  their  rites  sacrifices  and 
self-inflicted  punishments.  Animals  of  vari- 

53 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

ous  kinds  are  sacrificed  at  each  meeting  of 
Vaudouxists  and  the  highest  offering  is  the 
snow-white  sacred  goat.  To  the  rhythm  of 
Vaudoux  drums  or  tom-toms,  the  worshippers 
dance  themselves  into  excited  passions  for  hour 
after  hour,  until  the  chief  dancers,  who  alone 
remain,  finally  fall  from  utter  exhaustion. 
During  this  dance  the  men  eat  pieces  of  glass 
and,  dancing  upon  red-hot  coals,  they  place 
burning  pieces  of  charcoal  in  their  mouth^ 
And  we  read  of  the  asceticism  of  the  Middle 
Ages  and  think  of  it  as  a  bygone  phrase!^ 

Often  at  the  Vaudoux  meetings  the  partici- 
pants become  maddened  by  the  liquor  and 
revel,  and  debauchery  finally  prevails  in  its 
lowest  forms,  until  the  meeting  breaks  up  at 
dawn.  But  the  endurance  of  the  chief  dancers 
who  continue  for  five,  six  and  seven  hours  with- 
out ceasing  for  a  moment,  is  truly  marvelous. 

So  great  is  the  fear  of  Vaudoux  inbred  in 
the  Haitian  that  even  with  those  who  are  civil- 


Vaudoux 


ized  and  cultured,  many  remain  in  awe  of 
Vaudoux  or  are  restrained  from  exerting  their 
influence  against  it  through  fear  of  poisoning, 
for  the  Haitians  are  arch-poisoners.  And 
thus,  though  many  Haitians  of  the  upper 
classes  are  nominally  good  Catholics,  they  are 
still  to  a  more  or  less  extent  subservient  to 
Vaudoux  superstitions  and  avoid  openly  op- 
posing the  demonstrations  of  it  by  their  coun- 
trymen. 

Many  of  the  presidents  of  Haiti  were  them- 
selves Vaudoux  priests  and  but  two  among 
them  took  any  active  measures  toward  repress- 
ing it.  These  two  were  Geffrard  and  Boisson- 
Canal  and  the  act  meant  their  downfall,  for 
Vaudouxism  is  habitually  aided  or  winked  at 
by .  the  Government.  Toussaint  L'Overture 
was  an  out-and-out  Catholic  and  took  definite 
measures  against  Vaudouxism,  but  in  his  day 
the  beliefs  were  not  so  strong  and  it  was  much 
easier  to  repress  its  practice. 

55 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

It  is  now  impossible  for  the  Vaudouxists  to 
openly  hold  their  meetings  near  the  towns  and 
they  are  forced  to  find  some  rendezvous  among 
the  hills.  But  in  the  towns  the  natives  still 
hold  their  dances,  where  they  dance  the  weird 
"bambeula"  to  the  beat  of  the  tom-tom  very 
much  as  they  do  at  the  real  Vaudoux  meetings. 
The  tom-toms  are  made  out  of  a  hollow  log  and 
two  skins  which  are  made  taut  over  each  end  of 
the  log.  The  tom-tom  beater  is  skilled  and  as 
particular  about  his  instrument  and  how  it  is 
tuned  up  (by  tightening  or  loosening  the  bind- 
ings of  the  skins)  as  any  violinist.  The  tom- 
tom beater  knows  many  different  native  tunes. 

And  so  Vaudouxism  still  prevails  the  driv- 
ing religious  force  of  most  Haitians.  The 
most  uncivilized  are  out-and-out  worshippers 
and  regularly  attend  the  Vaudoux  rendezvous, 
but  the  higher  classes  are  ashamed  to  confess 
their  subservience  to  Vaudouxism  to  foreign- 
ers and  consequently  many  pose  as  Catholics 

56 


Vaudoux 


although  sometimes  they  are  themselves  Papa- 
lois.  And  then  there  are  those  Haitians  who  are 
truly  Catholics,  and  these  are  in  most  cases 
those  who  have  been  educated  abroad.  They 
are  usually  of  the  younger  generation.  But 
as  I  have  shown  they  dislike  intensely  to  come 
out  openly  against  the  practice  of  Vaudoux- 
ism  by  other  Haitians. 

The  elimination  of  Vaudouxism,  in  fact, 
rests  almost  entirely  upon  the  shoulders  of  the 
Americans.  And  this  elimination  is  imperative 
for  Vaudouxism  is,  not  so  much  a  religious  evil, 
but  an  unmoral  and  uncivilizing  f actor>  Hris 
Vaudouxism,  too,  which  makes  more  difficult 
the  fighting  of  the  cacos;  for  Vaudoux  priests 
have,  through  their  hold  upon  the  religious 
fear  of  the  Vaudouxists,  tremendous  power 
over  all  their  doings.  Upon  the  sounding  of  a 
Vaudoux  drum  the  priest  can  very  often  do 
about  what  he  wants  with  his  followers.  Prob- 
ably all  of  the  caco  chiefs  are  Vaudoux  priests 

57 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

and  thus  hold  together  bands  which,  freed  from 
religious  scruples,  would  abandon  their  pur- 
pose of  brigandry.  For  example,  in  the  Janu- 
ary raid,  many  of  the  cacos  who  had  been 
wounded,  admitted  that  they  had  gone  into 
the  attack  only  because  of  their  belief  that  the 
Vaudoux  charms  which  they  wore  made  them 
invulnerable. 

One  Sunday  while  I  was  waiting  at  the 
Gendarme  headquarters  at  Leogane  there 
was  being  held  there  the  weekly  meeting  of 
the  "Communale"  and  the  Gendarme  officer 
told  me  that  the  chief  of  this  force  was  one  of 
the  natives  who  had  always  joined  in  every 
revolution  which  had  reached  that  part  of  the 
country  and  the  third  chief  was  formerly  an 
ally  of  the  great  caco  leader,  Charlemagne.  A 
strange  band,  certainly,  to  be  the  guardians 
of  law  and  order.  But  it  was,  after  all,  rea- 
sonable. These  men  were  the  most  intelligent 
in  their  neighborhood  and  then  of  course  it  was 

58 


Vaudoux 


infinitely  better  to  have  such  men  in  a  place 
where  their  salaries  would  keep  them  law-abid- 
ing than  to  have  them  outside  the  law  and  in- 
citing trouble  against  a  less  capable  govern- 
ment force. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  establish  any  sort  of 
efficient  and  just  civil  force  because  of  the 
ignorance  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  Haitian 
population.  The  number  of  intelligent,  or 
partly  intelligent  men  in  a  country  district  is 
small,  and  it  is  the  intelligent  men  in  these  sec- 
tions who  are  usually  in  league  with  the  cacos, 
either  openly  or  secretly.  And  with  the 
magistrates  there  is  another  obstacle  which 
prevents  the  execution  of  justice.  Ever  since 
the  beginnings  of  Haitian  history,  graft  has 
been  so  natural  and  accepted  a  thing  with  gov- 
ernment officials  that  it  is  inborn  in  the  present 
generation  and  time  alone  will  ever  wipe  it  out. 

At  present  with  a  large  number  of  the 
magistrates  impartial  judgment  is  unknown 

59 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

and  the  local  law  verdict  goes  to  the  highest 
bidder.  First  one  side  buys  up  the  judge  and 
then  the  other  until  finally  one  party  is  forced 
to  give  in  through  lack  of  resources.  The 
chief  drawback  in  attempting  to  eliminate  such 
graft  is  the  ridiculously  low  pay  given  to  a 
magistrar.  It  is  but  natural  for  a  judge  to 
seek  outside  gains  in  order  that  he  may  earn  a 
living.  When  a  Haitian  dies,  and  some  of  the 
more  prosperous  of  them  have  accumulated 
fortunes  of  over  a  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
the  heirs  or  even  outsiders  who  are  on  the  spot 
loot  his  wealth  and  leave  nothing  for  any  ab- 
sent members  of  the  family.  The  latter  are 
unable  to  obtain  justice  later  because  the  first- 
comers  have  carefully  bought  up  the  local  offi- 
cials with  a  portion  of  their  new  gains. 

This  unfair  state  of  local  government  can 
be  remedied  only  slowly  and  by  the  gradual 
elimination  of  the  idea  of  graft  as  an  expected 

60 


A     SOURCE     OF    THE     GREATEST    GOOD THE     ROMAN     CATHOLIC 

SISTERS    AT   ONE    OF   THE    MANY    CONVENTS   ON    THE    ISLAND 


THE    HEAD   XURSE    AT  THE    PUBLIC    HOSPITAL   WITH    HER    CORPS 
OF   HAITIAN    NURSES 


Vaudoux 


right  of  a  government  official.  But  as  I  have 
pointed  out  the  raising  of  the  magistrate's  sal- 
ary is  a  prerequisite.  The  low  salary  now 
paid  is  of  course  due  to  the  lack  of  funds  which 
hinders  the  development  of  the  country  at 
every  turn. 

Under  the  provisions  of  the  American 
treaty  with  Haiti,  the  entire  financial  situation 
was  placed,  during  the  duration  of  the  treaty, 
in  the  hands  of  a  financial  advisor,  who,  having 
been  nominated  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  is  appointed  by  the  President  of  Haiti. 
Addison  P.  Ruan  was  the  first  appointee  and 
served  in  Haiti  for  two  years  until  he  was 
transferred  to  take  the  same  post  in  Panama. 
Following  Mr.  Ruan,  John  A.  Mcllhenny 
came  to  Haiti  and,  realizing  like  his  predeces- 
sor the  urgent  need  for  money  with  which  to 
develop  the  country,  he  has  been  steadily  at 
work  to  put  through  a  Haitian  loan  in  the 

61 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

United  States.  This  is  of  course  at  present 
impossible  due  to  the  abnormal  financial  situa- 
tion in  this  country. 

The  financial  advisor  in  Haiti  has  the  au- 
thority to  make  all  appropriations  of  the  state 
money  and  his  word  is  final  as  to  their  expendi- 
ture. In  this  respect  Haiti  is  being  run,  dur- 
ing the  treaty  period,  in  very  much  the  same 
way  as  India  is  governed  by  England,  except 
that  no  treasurer  is  needed  in  Haiti,  as  the 
Haitian  National  Bank  serves  that  purpose. 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  AND  NORMIL  CHARLES 

MDANTES        BELLEGARDE, 
Minister    of    Public    Instruction, 
•  had  told  us  that  he  would  be  glad 
to  show  us  through  the  schools  of  Port-au- 
Prince.     We  therefore  arranged  a  date  and 
set  out  one  morning  to  make  the  tour.    With 
us  went  also  the  American  Advisor  to  the 
department,  Mr.  Bourgeois. 

At  the  time  the  treaty  was  made  between 
Haiti  and  the  United  States,  no  provision  was 
arranged  for  the  Department  of  Education, 
as  was  done  with  the  Sanitary  and  Engineer- 
ing Departments.  Thus  the  development 
made  possible  through  the  more  direct  assist- 
ance from  Washington  has  been  unattainable 
in  the  school  work,  and  although  the  work  we 

63 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

saw  being  carried  on  was  a  remarkably  inspir- 
ing demonstration  of  accomplishments,  yet  the 
small  proportion  which  is  being  done  of  what 
could  be  done  if  greater  means  were  available 
is  quite  discouraging.  It  is  the  same  cry  as 
one  raises  on  every  hand:  If  only  they  had  the 
means ! 

Two  years  ago,  three  years  after  the  treaty 
was  signed,  Mr.  Bourgeois  came  to  Haiti,  but 
only  in  the  capacity  of  an  Advisor  responsible 
to  the  Haitian  Government  alone  and  not  as 
a  league  official.  His  force  is  largely  re- 
stricted to  negative  powers. 

It  is  indeed  fortunate  that  a  mind  of  re- 
markable keenness  and  a  power  for  practical 
work  exists  in  the  person  of  the  present  Min- 
ister, M.  Bellegarde.  But  should  a  man  of 
lesser  force  take  his  place,  as  has  happened 
within  recent  years,  the  result  would  be  de- 
plorable. Also,  M.  Bellegarde  could  carry  his 
work  much  further  if  he  had  the  proper  finan- 

64 


Public  Education  and  Normil  Charles 


cial  and  other  material  aid  of  the  United  States 
Educational  Department. 

Although  compulsory  educations  is  legally 
a  fact,  there  is,  in  reality,  a  force  of  teachers 
and  equipment  for  but  18,000  of  the  200,000 
children  of  the  proper  age.  Many  of  these 
children  are  in  the  country  districts  where  good 
teachers,  who  even  in  the  city  are  at  a  premium, 
are  almost  an  unknown  factor.  This  feature 
is  being  remedied  as  far  as  practicable,  all 
the  time,  and  the  teachers  in  the  rural  schools 
are  being  carefully  examined.  Some  of  these 
have  been  found  to  be  utterly  unable  to  correct 
their  pupils'  simple  exercises  and  these  teach- 
ers are  being  dropped.  But,  though  it  is  thus 
very  simple  to  drop  an  incompetent  teacher,  it 
is  a  manifold  more  difficult  task  to  replace  him. 
The  pay  for  teachers  is  $6  per  month  and  so, 
even  low  as  wages  are  in  Haiti,  the  position 
of  teacher  is  not  so  lucrative  as  to  have  very 
many  applicants. 


65 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

The  salaries  cannot  be  raised.  It  is  the  old 
story  of  lack  of  money.  Nearly  half  of  the 
annual  appropriation  for  public  instruction  is 
being  swallowed  up  by  the  present  salaries  of 
the  present  number  of  teachers.  The  re- 
mainder is  naturally  barely  sufficient  to  main- 
tain the  existing  schools.  No  new  advances 
are  possible. 

Fortunately,  besides  the  public  schools  of 
Haiti,  there  are  numerous  privately  run  ones, 
nearly  always  under  religious  or  parti-religious 
supervision.  The  Catholics  are  the  most 
frequent  benefactors  and  are  doing  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  the  work.  Originally,  before 
the  present  public  school  system  was  created, 
these  schools,  missions,  or  convents  were  in 
part  supported  by  the  state ;  but  gradually  this 
assistance  is  being  necessarily  taken  away. 
'  Our  first  visit  was  to  a  school  run  by  Belgian 
Sisters.  It  was  a  school  for  girls  only  and  was 
still  supported  in  part  by  the  Government. 

66 


Public  Education  and  Normil  Charles 

For  the  younger  children  the  work  consists 
mostly  of  such  studies  as  would  be  taught  in  a 
primary  school  in  the  States,  great  stress  being 
laid  upon  the  speaking  of  good  French.  This 
is  particularly  important  because  the  natural 
tongue  of  the  lower  classes  of  natives  is  Creole, 
which  in  Haiti  consists  of  an  ungrammatical 
and  corrupted  language  drawn  principally 
from  the  French,  but  also  with  traces  of  Eng- 
lish, Spanish  and  early  Indian  words.  Some 
Creole  words  seem  to  defy  a  tracing  of  their 
origin.  Although  the  natives  may  understand 
you  if  you  speak  French  to  them,  it  is  impos- 
sible for  you  to  make  out  what  they  say,  though 
you  may  know  French  perfectly. 

"Vini  non"  is  a  Creole  expression  used  con- 
tinually to  mean  "come  here!"  Its  derivation 
is  certainly  obscure.  Nor  is  Creole  the  same 
all  over  the  republic.  Each  section  has  its 
own  dialect  which  is  distinct. 

After  the  children  learn  the  first  elements 


67 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

of  grammar  school  work,  they  begin  to  work 
a  part  of  the  day  at  embroidery,  sewing  and 
knitting.  Thus  the  vocational  work  is  gradu- 
ally increased  and  before  the  girls  graduate 
they  are  given  training  which  fits  them  to  be 
efficient  servants.  Vocational  schools  of  this 
type  are  just  what  Haiti  needs  most  of  all. 
They  serve  the  double  purpose  of  training  the 
natives  to  obtain  a  good  living  and  they  also 
furnish  a  means  by  which  the  better-off  may 
secure  good  servants  and  workers. 

Downstairs  in  the  school  building  are  the 
school  and  work  rooms — upstairs  the  dormi- 
tory. The  dormitory  consists  of  one  large 
room  covering  the  entire  top  of  the  house  and 
filled  with  cots  for  every  boarder.  For  every 
two  cots  there  is  also  provided  a  washstand 
which  contains  places  where  they  may  keep 
their  personal  articles.  The  entire  effect  was 
of  an  establishment  thoroughly  modern  and 
scrupulously  clean.  Besides  these  girls  who 

68 


MAGISTRAR'S   STAND — or   WHICH    THERE    is   ONE   IN   EVERY 
TOWN 


THE     NEW  PRESIDENT  S   PALACE 


Public  Education  and  Nor  mil  Charles 

come  from  the  country  districts  and  board, 
the  school  has  also  a  great  many  day  pupils 
who  live  at  their  homes  in  town. 

The  next  school  we  went  to  was  a  non-voca- 
tional one  under  the  direction  of  an  order  of 
French  Brothers.  It  was  solely  for  boys,  just 
as  the  first  was  only  a  girls'  school,  for  the 
morals  of  the  country  do  not  permit  the  adop- 
tion of  co-education,  even  though  the  pupils 
are  of  the  earliest  ages. 

The  priests  who  conduct  this  institution  are 
certainly  as  fine  a  type  of  self-sacrificing  men 
who  are  aiding  a  truly  worthy  cause  as  I  can 
imagine.  They  see  the  tremendous  possibili- 
ties and  without  limiting  their  efforts  to  what 
they  could  accomplish  with  a  normal  amount 
of  work  they  undertake  almost  superhuman 
attempts.  Of  the  Brothers  who  come  to 
Haiti,  their  average  length  of  life  after  arriv- 
ing is  but  12  years,  so  killing  is  their  work. 
The  normal  amount  of  work  for  a  professor 

69 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

in  the  United  States  is  about  18  hours  a  week, 
but  the  Brothers  in  Haiti  teach  for  8  hours 
every  single  day.  And  every  effort  which 
they  put  into  it  is  unwasted  and  has  a  telling 
effect  in  the  result. 

There  are  11  grades  of  scholars  taught  by 
the  Brothers,  from  the  earliest  kindergarten 
to  the  graduation  class  who  would  correspond 
to  high  school  students.  The  boys  are  given 
work  in  geography,  history,  spelling,  French, 
mathematics  and  other  things  which  would  be 
taught  in  any  American  school.  I  looked  over 
the  copy  books  of  the  younger  boys  and  the 
neatness  and  excellent  penmanship  of  even 
children  of  six  was  amazing.  All  of  the  chil- 
dren seemed  to  be  naturally  gifted  at  free- 
hand drawing.  One  little  boy  of  eight,  when 
asked  what  his  favorite  subject  was,  replied: 
"My  national  emblem."  He  drew  therewith  a 
fine  representation  of  a  palm  tree. 

70 


Public  Education  and  Normil  Charles 

Although  the  order  of  Brothers  is  French, 
not  all  of  them  are  Frenchmen.  Several  are 
Americans,  a  few  Canadians  and  Portuguese, 
and  one,  a  Haitian  Brother. 

Our  third  and  last  visit  was  to  the  Ecole 
Normale  d'Industrie.  The  graduating  pupils 
here  act  as  teachers  of  the  younger  ones. 
This  school  is  one  of  the  public  schools  and  as 
we  went  through  it,  M.  Bellegarde  proudly 
pointed  to  a  particularly  fine-looking  little  boy. 
"That  is  my  son."  We  went  through  many 
classrooms  full  of  scholars  of  different  ages 
studying  in  very  much  the  same  way  as  chil- 
dren study  in  America.  It  seemed  a  cause 
for  hope  to  look  at  this  public  school  through 
which  the  Haitian  children  were  being  made 
to  see  the  advantages  of  education  and  the  op- 
portunity to  rise.  When  every  Haitian  child 
will  be  able  to  have  such  instruction  and  train- 
ing then  his  genration  will  be  able  to  throw  off 

71 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

the  yoke  of  past  superstitions  and  dispel  the 
ignorance  which  has  been  holding  back  the 
masses. 

Following  this  tour  of  the  few  schools  which 
time  allowed  us  to  visit,  M.  Bellegarde  took  us 
to  the  studio  of  Normil  Charles.  M.  Charles 
is  a  Haitian  sculptor  who  has  remarkable 
genius  and  is  one  of  the  leading  sculptors  of 
the  world.  He  studied  in  Paris  for  a  number 
of  years,  and  has  received  many  decorations 
and  honors.  As  we  entered  his  studio,  in  front 
of  us  we  saw  a  huge  bronze  which  he  is  doing 
for  the  Government  and  which  is  to  be  placed 
'in  the  Champ  de  Mars.  It  is  called  "The 
Benefactor"  and  is  the  statue  of  a  great  public- 
spirited  man.  At  his  feet  kneels  a  peasant 
woman,  with  babe  in  arms,  mourning  his  death. 
The  piece  would  certainly  be  a  work  of  the 
first  class  anywhere  and  the  country  may  well 
be  proud  that  one  of  its  citizens  is  its  author. 
In  the  studio,  too,  was  the  bust  of  Dessalines, 

72 


Public  Education  and  Nor  mil  Charles 

done  by  Charles,  and  which  I  had  seen  six 
months  before  in  the  Pan-American  Building 
in  Washington,  where  it  remained  for  some 
time. 

M.  Charles,  himself,  is  a  delightful  man, 
well-mannered  and  interesting.  But  he  is  in- 
deed a  strange  product  of  a  country  which  for 
so  many  years  has  been  kept  down  by  revolu- 
tion with  the  resulting  isolation  and  lack  of 
opportunity  to  devote  time  to  the  pursuits  of 
peace. 


VI 

THE  PRESIDENT 

FROM   the  studio  of   M.    Charles,    M. 
Bellegarde  took  us  to  see  the  new  pal- 
ace.   It  is  a  huge  structure,  quite  like 
a  palace  in  appearance,  and  made  of  white 
stucco.     It  is  more  than  twice  the  size  of  our 
White  House  and  is  shaped  like  the  letter  E, 
with  the  three  wings  running  back  from  the 
front.     In  the  main  hall  huge  columns  rise  to 
the  ceiling  and  at  each  side  a  staircase  winds 
up  to  the  second  floor. 

While  we  were  starting  to  go  through  the 
palace  the  guard  had  apprised  President 
Dartiguenave  of  our  presence  and  we  were 
surprised  and  delighted  to  have  him  send  word 
that  he  would  be  glad  to  receive  us.  Although 
the  left  wing  of  the  building  is  to  be  the  Presi- 

74 


The  President 


dent's  private  suite,  it  is  as  yet  uncompleted 
and  he  is  at  present  occupying  the  opposite 
end.  We  entered  the  President's  office,  where 
he  rose  from  his  desk  to  meet  us,  and  to  usher 
us  through  to  the  Cabinet  room.  This  room 
is  large,  like  all  the  rooms — perhaps  40  feet 
square — and  with  a  long  table  in  the  center 
surrounded  by  chairs.  Here  the  President 
meets  his  Cabinet. 

The  President  is  a  man  of  medium  height 
and  has  the  bearing  of  an  aristocrat.  His 
hair  and  beard  are  gray  which  contribute  to 
his  good  appearance.  He  is  rather  light  in 
color  and,  indeed,  is  the  first  president  for  a 
long  time  who  has  not  been  a  black.  The 
President  does  not  speak  English  but  under- 
stands and  speaks  French  perfectly.  Al- 
together he  is  a  delightful,  cultured  man  and 
a  suitable  head  for  the  Republic. 

From  the  balcony  of  the  palace  there  is  an 
excellent  view,  overlooking  the  entire  town  and 

75 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

the  harbor  beyond.  The  next  room  to  visit 
was  the  "Salle  Diplomatique"  where  all  official 
receptions  are  held.  This  had  just  been  deco- 
rated but  was  as  yet  unfinished.  The  Presi- 
dent personally  escorted  us  to  it  and  after- 
wards to  his  future  private  suite.  He  then 
showed  us  downstairs  and  out  to  the  car,  where 
we  left  both  the  President  and  M.  Bellegarde. 


76 


"WHITE  WINGS"  OF  PORT-AU-PRINCE 


MARKET    WOMEN    LEAVING    TOWN    ON   THEIR   "fiURRGs' 


VII 

A  MORNING  HUNT 

AS  I  left  the  house  one  morning  at  two, 
the  yard  boys  next  door  were  already 
at  work  and  in  town  the  "white  wings" 
—an  American  institution — were  about. 
Three  of  us  joggled  along  for  22  miles  for  an 
early  duck  shoot  and  talked  of  many  things, 
among  them  concerning  a  proposed  map  of 
Haiti.  The  existing  one  is  grossly  inaccurate 
as  is  easily  shown  by  an  airplane  flight  or  a 
ship  attempting  to  follow  many  of  the  chan- 
nels. There  is  no  triangulation  point  in  Haiti 
and  so  the  present  coast  line  on  the  maps  is  the 
result  of  a  certain  number  of  bearings  from 
off  shore,  with  the  remainder  a  matter  of  free- 
hand filling-in.  The  use  of  airplanes  in  here- 
tofore untried  ways  will  be  employed  to  aid 

77 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

in  the  exact  location  of  towns  and  be  a  means 
of  a  great  saving  of  tedious  traverse  work. 

In  town,  life  was  already  stirring,  as  I  have 
shown.  This  is  nothing  unusual  for  it  is  the 
customary  hour  for  the  Haitian  to  begin  his 
day.  By  6  the  "gentlemen  about  town"  are 
in  the  streets  with  their  canes  and  Stetsons, 
debating  the  fall  of  the  cabinet  or  the  latest 
development  in  the  gourde  situation.  But  out 
in  the  country  everything  was  still  dark  and 
the  market  women  had  barely  started  to  bring 
their  load  into  town.  So  we  met  no  one — ex- 
cept twice  the  marine  patrol  car  on  its  route. 

Just  outside  the  portals  marking  the  limits 
of  Port-au-Prince  on  which  are  inscribed  the 
words:  "Peace,  Justice,  Work,"  is  the  historic 
Pont  Rouge.  This  is  the  spot  where  revolu- 
tionary troops  coming  down  from  the  moun- 
tains and  across  the  plains  would  first  meet 
the  forces  of  the  existing  government  of  Port- 
au-Prince.  Here  the  great  Dessalines,  com- 

78 


A  Morning  Hunt 


ing  into  town  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  met 
what  he  believed  to  be  a  guard  of  his  own 
troops.  His  own  general  was  leading  them, 
but  had  betrayed  Dessalines,  and  the  President 
was  soon  left  wounded  in  the  roadway  to  die. 
It  had  been  Dessalines  who,  it  is  said,  sported 
himself  by  pulling  out  the  eyes  of  his  prisoners 
with  corkscrews. 

The  streets  in  Port-au-Prince  are  wide  as- 
phalt pavements  and  would  be  adapted  for 
speeding  but  for  the  presence  in  the  center  and 
sides  promiscuously  of  unruly  "burros,"  naked 
babies  playing  in  the  dirt,  odd  Haitian  pigs 
looking  like  some  new  species  of  animal,  and 
pedestrians  of  strange  sorts.  This  is  true, 
also,  for  some  distance  out  on  the  Hasco  road, 
over  which  we  went.  But  after  a  few  miles 
we  came  out  upon  one  of  the  new  roads  which 
has  been  put  down  throughout  the  island  by 
the  Haitian  Government  under  the  supervision 
of  the  Gendarmerie  and  of  an  engineering 

79 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

force  loaned  to  them  by  the  United  States. 
In  all,  about  500  miles  of  excellent  roadways 
have  been  put  down  since  the  American  inter- 
vention. 

In  this  work  the  budget  system  is  now  used 
and  as  every  payment  is  actually  handed  out 
by  one  of  the  American  engineers  himself,  the 
graft  which  was  formerly  rampant  has  been 
eliminated.  In  the  days  of  pre- American  in- 
tervention a  sum  of,  let  us  assume,  $50,000  was 
voted  to  build  a  road.  $5,000  of  this  regularly 
went  to  the  President  and  $500  to  each  Senator 
who  would  vote  for  the  appropriation.  This 
left,  generally,  about  $10,000,  or  one-fifth,  for 
actual  road  building  work. 

The  Haitians  have  proven  to  be  good  engi- 
neers and  except  for  the  pay  roll,  large  pieces 
of  work  are  often  carried  on  by  them  without 
assistance  from  the  Americans. 

The  first  part  of  the  road  which  we  struck 
was  excellent  but  after  branching  off  the  main 

80 


A  Morning  Hunt 


road  to  Pont  Beudet  we  came  to  the  new  part. 
Roads  of  this  type,  which  is  the  one  generally 
used,  are  macadam  with  good  foundation  of 
different  sized  stones  and  20  feet  in  width. 
The  top  dressing  is  a  good  binding  gravel 
which  can  be  found  within  short  distances 
along  almost  all  of  the  roads  which  they  are 
now  building.  A  temporary  track  is  run  from 
each  gravel  pit  along  the  side  of  the  road  until 
a  mile  or  so  on  another  pit  is  dug  and  the  rails, 
taken  up  and  laid  down  from  the  new  pit  on. 
The  gravel  is  thus  carried  to  where  it  is  needed 
by  a  small  engine  and  a  few  cars.  There  is  in 
this  way  no  long-distance  hauling. 

Finally  we  turned  off  the  new  road  to  a 
clearing  through  a  cactus  desert  at  the  edge  of 
Lake  Troucaiman.  Above  either  shore  two 
mountain  ranges  run  parallel  for  miles,  far 
above  the  lake.  The  lake  itself  is  open  water 
in  the  central  portion  but  by  far  the  greater 
part  is  filled  with  a  mass  of  lily,  mangrove  and 

81 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

reed  growth.     Often  it  is  so  dense  as  to  be  en- 
tirely impenetrable. 

When  we  arrived  at  Troucaiman  it  was  not 
yet  daylight  and  only  the  candles  in  the  few 
"cailles"  along  the  road  could  be  seen.  Upon 
the  approach  of  the  car,  five  or  six  natives  ap- 
peared, knowing  from  past  experience  what 
we  had  come  for,  and  with  our  French  and 
their  Creole,  interspersed  by  numerous  ges- 
tures, we  made  our  plans.  Each  of  us  started 
out,  alone  in  his  own  tiny  dugout  of  about  a 
foot  wide  and  four  feet  long  and  with  his  own 
native  in  the  back  to  pole  him  about.  The 
guides  had  taken  off  the  few  rags  which  they 
wore  and  one  by  one  we  were  shoved  off.  Part 
of  the  time  we  were  poled,  part  of  the  time  the 
craft  stuck  and  the  native  had  to  wade  along 
beside  to  keep  us  going. 

We  went  on  and  on  in  the  blackness  until 
finally  one  could  distinguish  black  shapes  aris- 
ing from  the  water  or  whirring  past.  It  came 

82 


A  Morning  Hunt 


at  last — the  gray  dawn  for  which  we  had  been 
waiting.  A  teal  went  overhead  with  its  char- 
acteristic rapid  flight.  A  slower-flying  red- 
head and  later  a  scaup  passed.  And  all 
around  were  hundreds  upon  hundreds  of 
Egrets,  great  white  forms  which  flappingly 
arose  when  we  approached  too  near. 

To  the  natives  there  are  four  kinds  of  ducks : 
"gens-gens,"  which  is  a  species  of  tree  duck; 
"cecele"  or  blue-winged  teal;  "cucurem"  or 
ruddy  duck;  and  any  other  duck  is  known  as 
"canard  generale."  All  of  the  first  three  spe- 
cies are  abundant,  as  are  also  the  scaup,  bald- 
pate,  redhead  and  Bahaman  pintail. 

We  met  at  nine  on  the  shore,  which  by  day- 
light looked  very  different  than  when  we  had 
left  it,  and  after  some  refreshments  and  com- 
paring of  our  respective  bags,  we  started  home. 
There  are  no  game  laws  in  Haiti,  so  that  your 
bag  is  only  limited  by  your  lack  of  skill.  Half 
way  in  to  Port-au-Prince  is  the  spot  where  two 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

months  before  three  Haitian  engineers  had 
been  murdered  in  the  "caille"  where  they  were 
spending  the  night.  The  men  were  working 
on  the  road  I  have  spoken  of,  but  as  the  caco 
trouble  had  been  active  in  that  district  just 
before  the  men  were  murdered,  these  men  had 
been  duly  forewarned  not  to  spend  the  night. 

Frequently  I  used  to  go  out  on  these  shoot- 
ing trips,  but  not  always  to  Troucaiman.  Two 
other  spots  were  alternated,  Miragoane  in  the 
west  and  tKe  salt  lakes  beyond  Troucaiman. 
These  salt  lakes  are  two  decidedly  brackish 
bodies  of  water  which  lie  on  the  border  of  Haiti 
and  Santo  Domingo.  They  are  at  the  end 
of  the  Plain  of  the  Cul-de-Sac,  and  a  few  miles 
beyond  the  town  of  Thomaseau.  The  water 
is  as  clear  as  a  crystal  and  the  scenery  amid 
these  wonderful  lakes  and  the  mountains  above 
them  is  splendid. 

In  the  opposite  direction,  and  70  miles  west 
of  Port-au-Prince,  is  Lake  Miragoane.  It  is 

84 


TYPICAL  "CAILLE"  XEAR  FURCY 

A    few   banana  and  coffee   trees    (on   the   left)    are 
all  that  each  one  has 


RAILWAY    TO    I.EOGANE 


A  Morning  Hunt 


just  beyond  Petit  Goave.  The  lake  is  large, 
being  about  eight  miles  long.  In  a  part  of 
the  lake  we  had  particularly  good  teal  shooting 
and  by  moonlight  thousands  of  "gens-gens" 
would  come  in  to  feed  in  the  shallows  overnight. 
Long  before  dawn  they  had  vanished  again. 

It  is  a  difficult  lake  to  shoot  upon,  however. 
The  mud  flats  from  the  shore  are  long  and 
reach  far  out  into  the  lake  so  that  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  to  use  a  dugout  for  some  dis- 
tance. Thus  it  was  necessary  to  walk  out  in 
shallow  water  and  deep  mud.  The  water, 
very  unlike  the  salt  lake  water,  was  thick, 
filthy  and  always  gave  one  an  itching  sensa- 
tion for  hours  after  having  been  in  it. 

Beside  the  duck  shooting  at  Miragoane, 
there  is  excellent  snipe  shooting  during  certain 
seasons  and  good  guinea  shooting  also.  It  is 
a  strange  thing  to  have  guineas  in  Haiti. 
The  guinea  is  a  native  of  Africa  which  only 
reached  the  new  world  in  a  domesticated  state. 

85 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

The  present  birds  are  descendants  of  the  do- 
mesticated ones  left  by  the  French  planters 
during  the  revolution  and  which  have  reverted 
to  the  wild  state  in  the  intervening  generations. 
Doves,  as  everywhere  in  Haiti  are  also  abun- 
dant, and  form  a  good  shoot  and  a  good  meal. 


86 


V1I1 

PINE  NEEDLES 

THE  mountains  had  changed  from  green 
to  violet  and  from  violet  to  black  and 
the   new   moon   silhouetted   the   peaks 
from  10,000  foot  summits  to  the  sea.     From 
Furcy,  the  next  range  to  the  east  seemed  with- 
in hands'  reach  across  the  valleys  and  hills  as 
its  mountains  rose  ten  miles  or  ten  hours  by 
trail  away.     Our  sweaters  and  blankets  felt 
barely  enough  as  the  wind  howled  around  us. 

With  closed  eyes  we  knew  from  its  tell-tale 

• 

sound  that  pine  trees  surrounded  us  and  that 
the  winds  were  blowing  stronger  and  stronger 
through  their  needles. 

We  climbed  the  hill  with  difficulty  over  the 
slippery  matting  of  pine  needles  to  pick 
bananas  along  the  road.  And  we  were  in  the 

87 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

tropics,  with  pine  cones,  palm  and  bananas 
growing  side  by  side.  Thanking  Providence 
that  I  am  alive  while  such  country  still  exists, 
untouched  by  man's  civilization,  I  gazed  for 
dozens  of  miles  over  several  mountain  ranges 
with  their  valleys  and  hills  overlapping  to  the 
sea  on  two  sides  of  the  island.  These  bits  of 
water  looked  far  away  indeed. 

With  only  a  rough,  mountain-stream  bed 
winding  for  miles  to  the  nearest  town,  we  were 
apart  by  so  much  from  white  man — but  in 
point  of  effect  upon  the  country  as  far  as  be- 
fore Columbus  saw  the  first  redskin  when  he 
landed  on  the  north  shore  of  the  island. 

Tucked  away  in  the  valleys  we  could  see  the 
lights  of  many  native  "cailles"  and  we  knew 
that  there  were  many  more  unseen.  With 
plaster  and  sticks  for  walls  they  are  roofed  by 
thatching  of  straw  overhanging  the  walls  and 
sloping  up  to  a  peak.  In  every  part  of  Haiti 
they  are  there,  each  the  same  with  its  2  or  3 

88 


Pine  Needles 


coffee  trees,  its  few  bananas  and  that  is  about 
all.  Along  the  road  are  the  market  women. 
Every  so  often,  perhaps  once  a  week,  they  take 
their  bananas  or  coffee  to  town,  a  walk  for 
some  of  18  hours'  steady  going,  to  sell  it  at  the 
Port-au-Prince  market  for  about  50  cents 
gold. 

And  the  natives  are  satisfied — in  fact  they 
do  not  want  things  to  be  any  different.  They 
have  enough  to  live  on  and  have  no  desires 
which  more  energy  would  gratify.  For  amuse- 
ment they  have  their  cock  fights,  when  all  the 
neighborhood  gathers  and  each  man  brings  his 
trained  rooster.  And  in  the  evenings  they 
have  their  native  dances  with  tom-tom  music 
and  native  rum,  taffia,  clcdrin  and  rum,  the 
first  entirely  unrefined,  the  second  somewhat 
refined,  and  the  third  refined,  though  very 
often  not  of  an  excellent  grade.  But  some* 
Haitian  rum  can  be  easily  obtained  which  is 

89 


Haiti:  Us  Dawn  of  Progress 

excellent  and  of  just  about  as  good  quality  as 
Jamaica  rum. 

And  then,  of  course,  besides  the  bananas 
and  coffee  which  they  sell,  the  natives  in  the 
hills  burn  charcoal  and  carry  this,  whenever 
they  need  money,  to  town  for  60  cts.  a  donkey 
load. 

We  had  left  Port-au-Prince  in  the  morning 
by  car  to  Petionville,  1200  feet  above  the  sea, 
and  from  there  had  changed  to  horseback. 
With  our  pack-mules  and  gendarme  guides 
we  left  Petionville  at  noon  and  started  the 
winding  trail  up  the  first  mountain  range. 
The  going  was  slow  as  the  trail  is  mostly  steep 
and  in  places  merely  a  stream-bed  filled  with 
loose  rocks.  Within  the  first  hour  we  were 
far  up  and  could  look  upon  Petionville  just 
below  us  and  beyond  it  the  broad  plain  of  the 
Cul-de-Sac  with  its  many  squares  of  bright 
green  sugar  cane  cut  in  the  brown-gray  cactus 

90 


Pine  Needles 


land.  As  a  background  for  this  flat  valley 
rose  the  mountains  of  Mirebalais  continuing 
beyond  the  ends  of  the  plain  to  the  sea  and  to 
the  salt  lakes.  Just  this  side  of  the  salt  lakes 
was  a  mass  of  water  and  reeds,  looking  very 
insignificant,  which  was  the  familiar  Troucai- 
man.  It  was  like  an  aerial  photograph  of  this 
entire  section  of  the  country  but  with  perspec- 
tive and  magnificently  varied  coloration. 

And  so  we  went  on  over  the  second  range 
to  get  our  first  glimpse  of  Kenskoff — a  tiny 
mountain  village  half-way  up  the  third  moun- 
tain slope.  We  climbed  up  the  winding  trails 
which  sometimes  consisted  of  cuts  through  the 
mountains,  but  generally  paths  cut  in  the 
mountainside,  with  the  crest  high  above  us  and 
the  base  far  below.  At  Kenskoff  is  a  tiny  white 
chapel  with  the  Pope's  flag  of  white  and  yellow 
marking  it  from  a  long  distance.  This  out- 
post of  Christianity  is  visited  perhaps  once  a 

91 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

month  by  the  priest  of  the  neighborhood  on 
his  rounds. 

After  watering  our  horses  and  having  a  few 
eggs  and  sandwiches,  we  left  Kenskoff  and 
the  mountains  became  more  barren.  A  red- 
tailed  hawk  soared  in  the  valley  below  us  and 
from  the  roadside  we  flushed  flocks  of  mourn- 
ing dove  at  every  curve.  And  then  we  reached 
Furcy,  and  around  the  side  of  the  mountain 
we  suddenly  came  upon  the  entire  panorama 
of  each  succeeding  range  rolling  up  from  the 
distant  ones,  which  were  in  Santo  Domingo,  to 
drop  from  10,000  feet  to  the  valley  below  us 
and  rise  again  to  our  pathway  of  about  one 
mile  high. 

It  was  a  clear  night  with  a  new  moon,  so 
only  a  few  tjny  clouds  floated  below  us  in  the 
valleys  and  above  only  the  black  and  gold  of  a 
starlit  night. 


OX   THE    ST.    MARC   ROAD   AFTER   THE    HEAVY   RAINS 


IX 

COTTON 

THE  week  before  Christinas  we  started 
off  on  a  motor  trip  as  the  guests  of 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  H.  P.  Davis.  Mr.  Davis 
is  the  Vice-President  of  the  United  West  In- 
dies Corporation,  an  American  concern  which 
is  engaged  in  developing  the  resources  of 
Haiti.  Although  operating  throughout  the 
Republic,  the  largest  plantation  of  the  com- 
pany is  near  St.  Michel  in  the  north-central 
portion,  where  for  miles  the  country  is  a  vast 
fertile  plain  and  thus  peculiarly  valuable  as 
agricultural  land.  The  soil  is  virgin — un- 
touched and  unused  except  in  the  early  Span- 
ish days,  centuries  ago,  for  cattle  grazing.  That 
part  of  Haiti  near  and  to  the  westward  of 
St.  Michel  was  never  in  the  possession  of  the 

93 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

French  as  was  the  rest  of  the  Republic,  but 
was  held  by  the  Spanish  until  driven  back  to 
the  present  Dominican  border  by  the  Haitians 
themselves. 

The  first  day's  ride  of  about  seven  hours 
brought  us  to  St.  Michel.  The  route  from 
Port-au-Prince  for  two-thirds  of  the  way  is 
along  the  bay  to  Gonaives.  From  there  the 
road  goes  directly  inland.  The  country 
through  which  one  passes  during  these  hours 
contains  many  changes,  for  from  the  fertile 
plains  outside  of  Port-au-Prince,  where  castor 
bean  and  sugar  cane  are  growing,  there  is 
suddenly  a  cessation  of  verdant  growth  be- 
yond St.  Marc,  and  for  miles  a  near-desert 
stretches  out.  The  road  is  merely  a  clearing 
of  the  cactus  growth  which  closes  in  on  either 
side  and  consists  of  queer-looking  species  of 
cacti.  The  soil  is  sandy,  the  air  humid,  and 
the  thorny  mass  on  every  side  impenetrable. 
Every  now  and  then  we  would  pass  partly 

94 


Cotton 


wild  mules  kicking  down  the  trunk  of  a  cactus 
to  drink  the  water  it  contained;  and  as  we 
pased,  some  of  the  natives  would  rush  madly 
into  the  bushes  from  fright.  It  is  not  so  long 
since  they  saw  their  first  motor  and  they  are 
still  filled  with  fear  when  one  appears. 

From  the  plains  of  Dessalines,  a  few  miles 
south  of  Gonaives,  there  is  an  excellent  view 
of  the  three  old  Haitian  forts  in  the  mountains 
back  of  the  plain.  Here  the  Haitiens  re- 
treated to  wait  until  the  forces  should  come 
across  the  plains  to  attack  them.  It  is  easy 
to  see  how  difficult  it  was  for  any  force  to 
attempt  to  attack  the  Haitians  when  once  in- 
trenched in  their  forts,  situated  on  cliffs  and 
with  hidden  trails  leading  to  them. 

Stopping  for  a  moment  in  the  plains,  we 
saw  a  woman  coming  up  to  the  car.  We 
found  out  that  she  wished  to  sell  her  baby  if 
she  could  get  a  few  gourdes  (20-cent  pieces 
of  our  money  but  corresponding  in  Haiti  to  a 

95 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

dollar)  for  it.  Again  at  Gonaives  a  small  boy 
begged  us  to  take  him  home  and  keep  him,  in 
exchange  for  which  he  would  do  any  work  we 
might  wish.  This  sort  of  temporary  slavery 
which  many  children  enter  into  or  are  sold  into 
by  their  parents  lasts  generally  until  they  are 
of  age,  during  which  time  they  do  any  work 
which  you  may  assign  them  to.  It  is  a  common 
custom. 

From  Gonaives  the  road  to  St.  Michel  passes 
through  Ennery  and  it  was  on  the  outskirts  of 
this  town  that  we  stopped  for  luncheon.  The 
spot  was  a  clearing  in  a  forest  with  huge  an- 
cient trees  and  little  coffee  bushes  surround- 
ing. In  the  clearing  were  the  stone  pillars, 
some  still  erect,  some  fallen,  of  what  was  once 
the  palace  of  Toussaint  L'Overture. 

Beyond  Ennery  there  is  a  stiff  climb  for  a 
number  of  miles  until  finally  one  comes  out  on 
the  plateau  which  constitutes  the  plains  of  St. 
Michel.  Passing  through  the  town,  which  is 

96 


Cotton 


at  the  southern  end  of  the  plain  of  Atalaye,  we 
went  a  short  distance  before  arriving  at  the 
headquarters  of  the  plantation.  Here  we  spent 
the  night.  The  main  building  is  a  very  at- 
tractive structure,  all  the  rooms  of  which  ex- 
cept the  kitchen  and  office  being  on  the  second 
floor.  All  around  is  a  second-story  veranda 
supported  by  wooden  posts  from  below.  We 
sat  late  watching  the  headlights  of  the  tractors 
moving  about  ceaselessly  over  the  plains. 

The  next  day  was  spent  in  looking  over  the 
plantation  and  seeing  the  new  long  staple  cot- 
ton which  they  are  growing  in  large  quanti- 
ties. Also,  in  the  afternoon  we  had  a  long 
ride  across  the  plains  and  afterward  a  guinea 
and  dove  shoot. 

At  6  on  the  morning  of  the  second  day  we 
started  out  in  our  car  for  Cap  Haitien.  After 
passing  Ennery  the  road  begins  to  climb  up 
and  up,  gaining  the  steep  ascent  only  by  curv- 
ing and  recurving  along  the  side  of  each  moun- 

97 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

tain  slope.  The  range  was  the  Puilboreaux 
Mountains  which  climatically  divide  the  island 
into  the  north  and  south.  In  Port-au-Prince 
and  all  of  southern  Haiti  we  were  in  the  middle 
of  the  dry  season,  as  I  have  said.  But  after  we 
were  over  the  summit  of  Puilboreaux  all  was 
changed.  The  foliage,  which  on  the  southern 
slope  was  dry,  was  now  verdant  and  profuse, 
the  road  muddy  instead  of  dusty  and  every- 
where flowers  of  all  kinds  flourished.  Each 
woods  had  the  orchids  out  in  bloom. 

Once  over  the  top  of  Puilboreau,  the  view 
is  wonderful.  Mountains  miles  away  look  very 
near  and  just  below  it  seems-,  though  it  is  really 
far,  lies  the  valley  of  Plaisance  with  the  little 
white  buildings  of  the  town  tucked  away  in  the 
center. 

Before  reaching  the  Cap,  as  Cap  Haitian  is 
called  throughout  Haiti,  it  is  necessary  to  ford 
the  Limbe  River.  Normally  this  is  very  sim- 
ple and  a  motor  will  cross  over  without  any 

98 


Cotton 


trouble.  Sometimes,  however,  in  the  floods 
of  the  rainy  season  it  becomes  impassable  and 
crossing  is  impossible  for  days  at  a  time.  When 
we  arrived  it  was  doubtful,  but  we  were  in- 
formed that  with  the  aid  of  the  prisoners  in 
the  gendarme  prison  there,  it  would  be  possi- 
ble. We  started,  pulled  by  a  rope,  pushed  by 
forty  black  figures  with  rags  to  indicate  the 
prison  cloth,  out  into  midstream  under  the  di- 
rection of  a  gendarme.  But  half  way  out  we 
stuck,  the  car  filled  with  water  to  the  seats  and 
only  after  everyone  was  up  to  his  neck  in 
water  beside  the  car  helping  to  push  it,  did 
we  finally  arrive  on  the  other  side. 

Cap  Haitien  is  to-day  not  a  very  important 
town,  compared  to  Port-au-Prince,  but  it  was 
the  capital  in  the  French  days,  and  the  center 
of  a  large  amount  of  commerce.  It  shows,  un- 
like other  towns,  decided  traces  of  the  Spanish 
architecture.  The  harbor  is  beautiful  and  along 
the  side  there  runs  a  drive  to  the  eastward. 

99 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

The  great  sight  of  the  north  I  did  not  see. 
It  is  the  Citadel  and  Sans  Souci,  the  palace 
of  Christophe.  In  the  mountains  far  above 
the  Cap  the  Citadel  lay  surrounded  by  mist 
except  for  a  few  minutes  early  the  next  morn- 
ing, when  the  clouds  were  swept  away  and 
we  got  one  glimpse  of  the  Citadel.  But  we 
were  unable  to  take  the  trail  which  winds  up 
to  the  palace  and  the  Citadel  because  of  the 
heavy  rains  which  at  that  time  flooded  the  re- 
gion. 


100 


HAITIAN     WOMEN    WASHING    THEIR    CLOTHES    IN    A    DITCH 


THE   AMERICAN    CLUB 


GOURDES 

THE  blood  of  the  present-day  Haitian  is 
largely  a  mixture  of  French  and  black. 
The  Indian  aborigines  were  totally 
eliminated  from  Haiti  by  the  Spaniard,  so  that 
unlike  the  most  of  Latin  America,  the  Indians 
or  their  descendants  form  no  part  of  the  popu- 
lation. The  Spaniard,  in  turn,  was  driven 
from  Haiti  by  the  French  before  he  had  left 
much  of  an  imprint  and  his  blood  forms  a  negli- 
gible factor  to-day.  The  English,  although  in 
Haiti,  were  there  so  short  a  time  as  to  leave 
no  strain  of  British  blood.  And  so  the  French 
blood  is  predominant. 

Also,  all  the  closest  connections  of  Haiti 
are  still  with  France,  or  were  up  to  the  time 
of  the  American  Occupation.  Creole  is  based 

101 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

more  fundamentally  upon  French  than  any 
other  language  and  the  conversation  of  the 
higher  classes  is  pure  French.  Many  Haitians 
go  each  year  to  Paris  to  study  or  to  visit,  and 
many  of  the  most  prominent  are  educated 
there. 

When  the  Americans  took  the  leading  role 
in  Haiti  there  naturally  arose  with  greater 
force  the  race  question.  The  feeling  between 
black  and  white  is  so  much  stronger  between 
most  Americans  and  the  black  races  than  it  is 
in  the  case  of  Europeans,  that  it  becomes  a 
serious  problem.  It  is  foolishly  intolerant  of 
the  American  who  goes  to  Haiti  to  assume  an 
attitude  of  mental  or  social  superiority  over 
the  Haitian  because  he  is  a  black.  It  would  be 
equally  absurd  for  the  Haitian  to  attempt  to 
break  through  the  walls  of  prejudice  and  to 
expect  all  Americans  and  Haitians  to  mix  with 
ease.  Although  it  is  most  certainly  true  that 
America  has  an  infinitely  more  thorough 

102 


Gourdes 


knowledge  and  is  more  capable  of  government 
than  is  Haiti,  yet  the  Haitians  have  what  many 
Americans  of  even  the  upper  classes  often  lack, 
a  knowledge  of  culture  and  excellent  manners. 

There  is  only  one  sane  social  attitude  to  take 
in  the  dealings  of  Haitian  and  American.  The 
American  must  remember,  as  he  should  when 
he  travels  anywhere,  that  he  is  dealing  with 
foreigners.  He  must  value  them  according  to 
their  own  standards  and  live  his  own  life  ac- 
cording to  the  standards  of  America.  Let  the 
American  in  Haiti,  if  he  does  not  care  to  mix 
with  the  Haitians,  not  do  so,  but  when  he  meets 
them  treat  them  as  their  education  and  culture 
entitles  them  to  be  treated. 

The  Haitians  understand  well  the  attitude 
of  the  Americans.  They  saw  the  failure  of 
the  attempts  in  the  early  days  to  mix  freely. 
They  now  are  anxious  to  meet  the  American 
men  but  wait  for  the  Americans  to  take  any 
initiative  in  a  social  way. 

103 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

In  Port-au-Prince  there  is  the  American 
Club,  whose  membership  is  limited  to  Ameri- 
cans. It  is  situated  on  Tourgeau  Street,  one 
of  the  main  residential  streets,  and  has  a  most 
attractive  clubhouse.  Beside  it  there  are  two 
excellent  clay  tennis  courts,  where  each  after- 
noon the  men  play  and  are  later  joined  for 
bridge  or  conversation  by  the  ladies.  Oppor- 
tunity there  is,  too,  for  rum  punches  and  cock- 
tails, for  Haiti  is  one  of  the  "wet  islands." 

Every  other  Saturday  night  and  in  between 
time  upon  the  arrival  of  a  foreign  warship  or 
some  occasion  of  this  kind,  dances  are  held  at 
the  Club  at  which  either  the  Gendarmerie  band 
or  a  small  native  string  orchestra  play. 

The  foreign  personnel  in  Haiti  consists 
chiefly  of  the  Marine  officers  and  treaty  offi- 
cials and  their  families.  This  is  supplemented 
by  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps  and  busi- 
ness men  who  are  either  engaged  in  business 
in  Haiti  or  who  are  there  looking  over  the 

104 


Gourdes 


country  in  view  of  future  investments.  And  so 
there  is  a  good-sized  foreign  colony,  mostly 
American,  in  Port-au-Prince,  which  has  a  so- 
cial life  all  of  its  own. 

There  are  two  chief  Haitian  clubs — the 
Cercle  Bellevue  and  the  Port-au-Prince.  The 
latter  is  a  young  men's  club  and  is  located 
on  the  Champ  de  Mars  next  to  Brigade  Head- 
quarters. The  Cercle  Bellevue  is  the  more 
representative  and  has  a  beautiful  building  in 
the  upper  part  of  town.  Its  members  number 
as  well  as  the  Haitians,  certain  Americans  who 
have  been  invited  to  join.  Frequent  dances 
are  given  by  the  Cercle  Bellevue  and  they  are, 
like  all  Latin  American  parties,  far  gayer  and 
more  elaborate  than  the  American  ones.  Rare- 
ly does  a  party  break  up  before  5  a.m. 

Nowhere  in  the  world  could  more  elaborate 
and  yet  correct  entertainments  be  given  than 
the  Haitians  have.  During  my  visit  the  Ar- 
gentine warship  "Nuevo  de  Julio"  came  into 

105 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

Port-au-Prince  and  was  the  occasion  for  many 
entertainments,  among  them  a  luncheon  to  the 
American  officers  which  was  held  on  board 
and  to  which  I  was  invited.  It  was  one  of  the 
most  delightful  luncheons  to  which  I  have  ever 
been.  That  night  a  state  dinner  was  given  by 
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  M.  Barau, 
to  the  Argentine  Officers,  and  to  which  the 
American  Commanding  Officer  and  the  Of- 
ficer of  the  Gendarmerie  were  also  asked. 
Mme.  Barau  is  French  while  her  husband  is 
of  course  a  Haitian.  No  dinner  anywhere,  I 
was  told,  could  have  been  given  which  would 
have  been  more  appropriate  or  more  delight- 
ful. 

The  national  standard  coin  of  Haiti  is  a 
gourde,  which  is  worth  20  cents  in  American 
money.  It  is  made  in  the  form  of  our  Ameri- 
can dollar,  and  means  to  the  Haitian  about 
what  a  dollar  means  to  an  American.  About 
two  years  ago  there  was  a  scarcity  of  gourdes. 

106 


Gourdes 


An  attempt  was  made  to  have  others  printed, 
but  as  the  printing  is  done  in  Washington  and 
at  that  time  the  printers'  strike  was  in  full 
swing,  it  was  impossible  to  get  the  gourdes 
for  a  long  time.  This  led  to  great  hoarding  of 
the  gourdes,  which  resulted  in  their  becoming 
even  scarcer  and  finally  in  their  depreciation  to 
below  4  for  a  dollar.  New  gourdes  were  being 
given  out  when  I  arrived  and  they  were  back 
at  their  normal  value  of  5. 

The  shops  in  Port-au-Prince  are  mostly 
Haitian.  The  West  Indies  Trading  Com- 
pany, an  American  concern,  it  is  true,  has  two 
large  stores  at  which  much  that  is  in  Ameri- 
can department  stores  can  be  purchased.  But 
the  rest  are  mostly  native-owned.  Simon 
Vieux  is  the  leading  grocery,  and  knick-knacks 
and  odds-and-ends  of  every  description  can  be 
gotten  at  "Le  Paradis  des  Dames,"  "Aux 
Cents  Mille  Artiles,"  and  "L'Ange  Gar- 
dien." 


107 


Haiti:  Its  Dawn  of  Progress 

It  was  indeed  with  tremendous  regret  that  I 
finally  left  Haiti  the  first  week  in  February. 
Haiti,  as  I  have  shown,  has  a  wonderful  past 
in  the  commerce  and  cultivation  of  the  French 
days  and  in  the  accomplishments  of  the  heroes 
who  made  and  kept  her  independent.  But 
these  records  are  only  a  preface  to  what  a 
marvellous  future  she  should  have.  Haiti  is 
essentially  a  land  of  the  future  and  of  pos- 
sibilities of  which  to-day  we  see  only  the  barest 
vision.  The  curtain  has  already  begun  to  rise 
upon  Haiti  as  an  agricultural  land  of  the  first 
class  and  more  and  more  it  will  be  opened  up 
and  become  again  the  rich  country  which  it 
once  was.  And  in  the  future  the  Haitians  and 
foreigners  together  will  reap  the  benefit  and 
they  will  be  of  great  mutual  aid  to  one  another. 


108 


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